


Last one standing(or not quite)

by sweetcreekbiscuit



Category: South Park
Genre: ????? i guess, Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Tragedy, Attempted Murder, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Death, Developing Friendships, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eric Cartman Being An Asshole, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mild Smut, Minor Character Death, More tags and characters to be added, Multi, Pining, Stick of Truth AU, Swearing, Trust Issues, Violence, oh no i forgot, why did i forget the fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-02-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:02:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 19
Words: 40,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22074460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetcreekbiscuit/pseuds/sweetcreekbiscuit
Summary: Stick of Truth fantasy!AU where everyone's roles are the same as in the game, but I added my own little twists for them. (example: Princess Kenny is a forest nymph; Kyle hasn't met Stan and Cartman; Craig hasn't met Those guys yet, etc.)rated mature because of triggering themes and scenes
Relationships: Bebe Stevens & Wendy Testaburger, Bebe Stevens/Wendy Testaburger, Craig Tucker/Tweek Tweak, Ike Broflovski/Firkle Smith, Kenny McCormick & Craig Tucker, Kenny McCormick & Leopold "Butters" Stotch, Kenny McCormick/Leopold "Butters" Stotch, Kyle Broflovski & Bebe Stevens, Kyle Broflovski & Craig Tucker, Kyle Broflovski & Eric Cartman & Kenny McCormick & Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski & Leopold "Butters" Stotch, Kyle Broflovski & Wendy Testaburger, Kyle Broflovski/Stan Marsh, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Stan Marsh & Craig Tucker, Stan Marsh/Craig Tucker(mentioned)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 113





	1. The last of them

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I decided to put in some sneak-peeks before the chapters, so-
> 
> **He slammed his hands on the table, the tray reacting with a thunk and the light of the candle flickering wildly. "You don't even deserve to be looked at! Nature made a great mistake when it created you and your kind."**

Dark sky and stormy clouds. Rain falling from the heavens, trying to wash away the remains of the living hell that unleashed its wrath on the earth.

That's what a particular young-looking elf saw as he laid on the now cold grass, panting and clutching his stomach while he tried to summon his magic to heal himself; red hair tousled and stuck to his forehead, cheeks and neck because of a mixture of sweat and rain; his red and gold clothing torn and covered in blood and dirt; his crown of twigs tossed to the side.

The elf groaned and let his head fall limp to the side, leaning against his shoulder while he tried to fight back the heaviness in his lids.

He couldn't possibly die here, right? Amongst his fallen people - some of them already dead, others breathing out their last sigh at that very moment.

A persisent voice in the back of his mind told him that he deserved this as he failed to protect his people and that was Fate taking revenge on him. But still, he felt tears of rage and sadness prickle at his eyes. The energetic fiery glimmer in his green irises was long gone now - he had finally given up his will to fight. He might as well embrace the bitter truth that he would never get to see his family again. He would never see his parents smile at him, he would never have the chance to teach his little brother how to use magic, he would never hear the birds chirping again. Hell, even in his last moments he couldn't hear them. It was as if every living creature had retreated, not wanting to be near from such a failure like him.

He closed his eyes, only to open them again slowly after a few seconds when he felt the vibrations of heavy footsteps coming towards him.

A human, he figured, and immediately regretted his decision to try and heal himself. He preferred death rather than seeing another of these ugly creatures which killed his people mercilessly. And for what? So they could have more territory. They were such simple-minded creatures that it made the redhead elf want to gouge his eyes out, then end his life himself right then and there. And he would surely do that if not for the lack of strength. 

So he just laid there helpless as his vision darkened, but he could still make out a pair of black boots coming to a stop in front of him, then a hand reaching down to cautiously move his hair away from his forehead. The caring touch would be nice actually, if not for the fact that the owner of the rough calloused hand was a human.

"I think we should take care of him." A silky smooth low voice said, contrasting with the rough hand that probably belonged to the same human who was talking right now. "We can't just leave him like this - he's the last one still breathing!"

"I don't think it's a good idea. You'll just prolong his suffering." Another voice called out from further away.

"You guys, just leave him here! We don't need any dirty elves with us!"

A third voice? Just how many humans were there?

"Shut up, Cartman! We're talking about real living and feeling creatures like us, not about a piece of rotten food that you can just throw away."

_No, he's right. Whoever he is. Just leave me here, please. Or just end me yourself._

The elf tried to swallow despite his dry mouth and throat, but failed and instead closed his eyes, bracing himself for the worst. Then a pair of strong arms snaked under his back and knees, lifting him up with a quiet grunt from the effort.

"It's okay. Everything's going to be okay. Just hold on." The human that held him murmured and that was the last thing that the redhead remembered before he passed out.

* * *

The young elf was quite surprised when he opened his eyes again to stare at an unfamiliar ceiling. His limbs tingled uncomfortably, but at least he could feel them attached to his body unlike when he was on Death's doorstep on the battlefield.

And speaking of that... Where on earth was he? How did he even get here? Under soft blankets and dressed in clothes that were definitely not his own.

He mustered his strength enough to sit up, then lean back against the wall behind him. He took in his surroundings slowly while his brain thought of a plan to escape.

He was in a small dimly lit room which was filled with only the bed he was currently on, a chair, a table with an almost burnt out candle sitting on top of it and a door to his right, as well as a small window above the bed.

Everything was completely still and silent, almost too easy for him to escape.

_Almost._

The elf helplessly waved his arms around, but they were bound with metal cuffs and chains in the wall, draining out his magic completely, so that option was out of the question. He couldn't even rely on his physical strength as he hadn't really trained it. He knew how to fight in hand-to-hand combat, but his skills were far from perfect. That was one of the reasons why he almost died out there after all. 

He gritted his teeth and curled in on himself, tucking his knees to his chest. He just had to wait and see what the humans were about to do to him. And it would be pretty soon, judging by the fast approaching familiar steps just outside the door. The redhead rose to stand on his knees, a long-clawed hand and sharp canine teeth getting ready for attack in case something happens.

The door slowly creaked open to reveal a plainly-dressed human about his age, with black short hair, a sharp defined jaw, straight nose and a tall muscular frame which showed that he was definitely a fighter. In his sleeveless arms he held a tray full of food, along with a jug of water, which he left on the table when he got in the room.

"You're finally awake." He muttered as he regarded the elf with a small smile, his eyebrows knitted compassionately. "Are you hungry?" He walked closer to the redhead, extending a careful hand forward, but the latter hissed like a wild animal and threw his hand towards the human, leaving four scratches on his bicep from his nails. Shallow enough for a warning, but deep enough to draw blood. "Ow- Hey! Why did you do that for?" The human protested and took a step back to clutch his arm, sucking in a sharp breath through his teeth from the stinging pain.

"Don't you dare..." The elf growled, baring his sharp canine teeth as his upper lip curled in disgust, his nose also scrunching up from the movement. "...to touch me, human." The words rolled off his tongue with such hatred that it made the stranger shiver.

"Woah, calm down." Now the human held his hands up in the air as a sign of surrender. "I don't mean you any harm. I want to help you."

The elf's eyes narrowed as he seemed to stare deep in the human's soul. He really did look kind and ready to help, but that didn't mean that it couldn't be a facade.

"I don't trust you. If you wanted to help, my hands wouldn't be tied right now."

"I'm sorry, but- it's for safety measures. The others are scared that you might do something to hurt them, so... I'm sorry. I managed to get longer chains so you could move freely, but..." The human trailed off and averted his gaze, then cleared his throat and gripped the edge of the table to bring it closer to the bed. He moved the chair on the other side and sat down with a sigh. "You have to eat something. If not, at least drink some water."

The redhead huffed as he eyed the food suspiciously.

"How do I know you haven't poisoned it?"

"Well, do I look like a person who would kill others by poisoning? Come o-"

"Yes." The elf cut him off as he raised his voice. "You're all the same - greedy, uncaring, pathetic, disrespectful and impossibly dumb!" He slammed his hands on the table, the tray reacting with a thunk and the light of the candle flickering wildly. "You don't even deserve to be looked at! Nature made a great mistake when it created you and your kind." 

"Look," The human began, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I know you're angry at the other sorry excuses for humans, but I can tell you for sure that at least I want to help you! I was the one who went through all the trouble to bring you here despite my friends not wanting you! Not all of us are so bad, okay?"

The elf shook his head and slowly retreated his hands. He found it would be a waste of time to try and prove his point, so he just let himself fall down against the soft mattress.

"I still don't believe you about the food." He finally said, his gaze moving up and down between the human and the tray.

"Ugh, for God's sake-!" The human leaned forward to take a small piece of the food and eat it. "See? It's not poisoned, so go on and eat it before you starve yourself to death."

The redhead lifted his hand cautiously to take a little bit of the food. After he tasted it, he took another bite, then another, and another, his eyes never leaving the human's until he ate everything.

"So, uh, what's your name?" The human asked after the redhead finished eating and was now in the midst of drinking water right out of the jug. The latter furrowed his brows again and set the jug down with an irritated sigh.

"It's rude to not introduce yourself first, human."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm Stanley- Stan. Just Stan. Actually whatever you prefer." The human, Stan, offered a half-smile as he watched the elf's shoulder slowly relaxing. "And you are...?"

The elf's eyes bore into his again, as if searching for something. Though he quickly gave up and leaned back to the wall, his knees lifting up in front of his chest again.

"Kyle."

"That's- that's fitting for you actually." Stan nodded to himself and stood up to bring the table to its previous place. "Okay, I think it's time for me change your bandages, so... will you let me do that?"

"What?" Kyle asked after a second, his brows furrowing in confusion. "Bandages?" He felt around on his body for something that would give him a clue and- there it was. He lifted his shirt slowly to see that most of his stomach and parts of his chest were covered in bandages. A bright idea came to him and he looked up to regard Stan again. "You won't have to go through the trouble if you remove these metal things from my hands. I can heal myself."

Though his hopes shattered and his expectations came true when Stan shook his head and kneeled in front of the bed to retrieve something from under it.

"I can't. I'm sorry. I'll be done quickly, so... just sit down and relax."

Kyle sighed exasperatedly, but complied and straightened his back. He figured that it would be better to win the human's trust, then use his kind's tricks and use him to get out of here.

He shut his eyes closed when Stan stood up again and lifted the elf's shirt up, then started to remove the bandages carefully. He threw those on the ground, then took new ones and started to wrap Kyle's torso with them after cleaning the wounds thoroughly. 

"You're healing incredibly fast even without magic. You're truly something, you know." Stan muttered, a small smile tugging on his lips. Though his voice came from a little too close for comfort and Kyle tilted his head back to rest it against the wall in order to avoid any further contact with the human.

"Just finish with this quickly. I'm tired." The redhead said, his tone and body language still too cold, but he really tried his best in acting friendly.

"Just a little more..." Stan whispered and pulled back after a few seconds. "Okay, there you go."

Kyle opened his eyes to look at the human with an unreadable expression before he answered with a quiet 'thank you' and fixed his shirt.

Stan seemed to relax at that -one point for Kyle- and smiled again.

"So do you need anything else?"

"I need to sleep."

"Oh, okay. Good night then." The human waved goodbye and exited the room while Kyle laid down with an annoyed grunt and clenched a fist around the blanket.

_Seriously, this human is really naïve. Almost too naïve to be real. He could be fearless and stubborn, but he seems too dumb to trust me that I won't hurt him._

_Those other humans with him were right. They could just leave me there, but... Why is he willing to help his enemy?_

_It doesn't make sense at all._

_Guess I'll have to find out tomorrow._


	2. Introductions gone wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"If we don't count the annoying fatass here, yeah. We all have good intentions except him because he's an inconsiderate jerk."**

Stan took the empty tray and blew the candle off before going out of the room. He returned to the main room of the house where his friends were staying currently, awaiting for their somewhat of a leader to come and fill them in on the things that happened while he was with the elf.

And speaking about the elf... Stan never knew elves could be so fierce for such peaceful creatures. But then again, he still found himself weirdly attracted to that one and- _no_. He should stop thinking about such things.

"O-oh fiddlesticks! Are you okay?!" Butters panicked upon seeing the wound on Stan's arm when he left the tray on the table in the middle of the room.

"I told you you should mix sleeping powder in with the food! That thing is dangerous!" Cartman scolded and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"For the second time, Cartman - _that thing_ is a living creature like us! And he has a name!" Stan growled, turning to regard the wizard, his brows furrowed. 

"Oh- He told you his name? What is it?" Kenny excitedly asked and shifted in his seat.

"It's Kyle. But he didn't tell me anything else besides that." Stan said, a little disappointed and rubbed the back of his neck. 

"Of course he wouldn't tell you. Are you an imbecile or something?" Craig, more widely known as Feldspar, called out from across his seat at the other end of the table. "From what I know, elves despise humans since the first great war and that thing from yesterday... I don't think he would trust us at all."

"But- we can just tell him that we didn't participate in that war." Stan muttered and sat down between Kenny and Cartman.

"I don't think it would be that easy, Stan." Kenny turned his head to regard said boy. "Just imagine that it was the other way around and the elves have defeated the humans. You would have trust issues too, wouldn't you?"

"Y-yeah. Kenny's right." Butters said while he looked for bandages to tend to Stan. 

" _Princess_ Kenny." Kenny corrected with a sigh and straightened his back as he flipped his long braided hair over his shoulder. "If you were someone else, you would already have a spear in your throat for leaving my title out like that."

"O-oh jeez! I'm sorry, princess!"

"I guess you're right." Stan averted his gaze and extended his arm to let Butters clean his wounds and wrap it with the bandages. "But that doesn't mean that we can't show him that we have good intentions, right?"

"If we don't count the annoying fatass here, yeah. We all have good intentions except him because he's an inconsiderate jerk." Craig said while picking on the food in front of him with his fork.

"Ey! Look who's talking - the person who can't and doesn't want to respect my authority!" Cartman retaliated and smacked his hands on the table.

"You _don't_ have any authority here, Cartman. Just because you're a wizard, it doesn't mean anything. We're all equal here." Craig replied with his usual monotonous nasal voice, his bored eyes piercing through the fat boy. It almost made Cartman gag.

"Guys, guys! Stop it! It's unnecessary to fight over stupid things like this!" Stan raised his voice, startling the others with his sudden change of mood. "Just stop bickering and start eating!" He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, muttering a 'thank you' to Butters under his breath when the other finished tending to his wound.

Butters retreated to his seat in front of Kenny who was currently examining Stan's arm curiously.

"Why did he scratch you? Did you startle him or something?"

"Yeah... But I understand him - he was just defending himself. And might I add, he was pretty energetic for a person who was on the verge of dying." Stan smiled at that thought, glad that the elf had recovered that quickly after a whole day of being unconscious. It was really impressive.

"Psh, _person_. It seems to me that he's just some kind of a wild beas- Ey!" Cartman received a hard kick to his shin from Craig, so he glared in return, but didn't dare to return the gesture.

"So, when do we get to see him and introduce ourselves?" Craig propped up an elbow on the edge of the table, showing interest just from his body language instead of his face which remained stoic as always.

"I don't really know, but he went back to sleep, so... I guess tomorrow? Though you guys should be on your best behaviors. Especially you." Stan turned to look at Cartman who rolled his eyes while stuffing his mouth with food.

"Golly, that would be interesting! I can't wait to meet him!" Butters bounced in his seat excitedly like a little kid which received a quiet chuckle from Kenny.

"Yeah. I'm absolutely thrilled." Cartman mumbled sarcastically. Luckily for him, it seemed that Craig didn't hear him, so he got away this time.

The boys continued to eat in silence, then called it a day and split up to go to their respective rooms after they finished with their dinner.

* * *

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Stan sing-songed as he sat down on the chair next to the bed.

"Dude, you'll startle him again!" Kenny scolded from his place behind Stan and flicked him on the back of his neck.

Kyle furrowed his brows before his eyes shot open to see not one, but five humans in the room. He sat up quickly, backing against the wall as he bared his canine teeth.

"I told you guys he's a-" Cartman flinched when Craig punched him in the shoulder, probably for the hundredth time this week. "Fuck you, Craig! You don't want another burn, do ya?!"

Kyle watched as the human named Craig flipped the fat boy off, then turned his attention back to the redhead. Then his gaze moved on to the two blonds, one of which was trembling slightly while the other was standing tall and proud, his broad shoulders and slightly athletic frame clearly prominent from under the long-sleeved dress. He's probably a nymph or something, Kyle figured, then looked over to Stan again.

"Who are they and why are they here?" Kyle asked, making sure to show his annoyance from seeing so many humans at once.

"I just thought it would be good to introduce you to my friends here. I'm sorry if we scared you." Stan offered a sheepish smile as he fiddled with his fingers.

"I don't want you to introduce anyone." The elf grunted as his hands clenched into fists. "Also, it's rude to invade someone's privacy like that. Don't you know who I am?"

Everyone looked confused except the supposed nymph who stepped forward to take a better look at Kyle's face, then smiled and bowed his head.

"Your highness." The blond grinned after a second and took the elf's right hand in his, placing a light kiss on his knuckles. "We're sorry for your current condition, but it's for safety measures. Otherwise we don't mean you any harm."

"W-wait, what?" Butters' eyes widened, becoming as huge as possible as he stared at Kenny who seemingly knew what he was doing, judging by his confident words and actions. "H-highness?" 

"Highness?" Cartman and Craig repeated, unbelieving.

"Are you kidding me?" Cartman crossed his arms in front of his chest, his eyes narrowed. "You mean to tell me that this thing is a royalty or something?"

Stan just stared dumbfounded, his eyes moving between Kenny and Kyle while the latter retreated his hand after a curt nod. There was definitely some kind of a majestic strong aura around the elf, but... a royalty? What was he doing on the battlefield then? And does Kenny know him?

"I'm glad that at least one person knows." Kyle muttered with a sigh. "Excuse me if it's rude, but I assume you're a nymph? I think I have seen you somewhere."

Kenny nodded and bowed again with a smile which Kyle easily replicated. "It's possible. Princess Kenny at your services. And these people here are Leopold or just Leo, or Butters, then we have Craig or Feldspar, and Eric, though we call him Cartman. And Stan who probably introduced himself already." Kenny accompanied the introducing with waves of his hand towards the boys when saying their names.

"Wait, wait, wait." Stan raised a hand and regarded Kenny. "I'm confused. How do you know that he's-" He turned to look at Kyle again. "Uh, sorry, what now?"

Kyle raised an inquisitive brow at Stan's slow reactions, but he reminded himself that he needed to be friendly, so he mustered up a small smile.

"A king to be. If you humans hadn't killed my people."

"Woah, so passive-aggressive." Craig remarked with a sigh. "Look, we didn't participate in that war. We're not one of them. More like, we're against them too."

"Yeah, if you guys hadn't stopped me from going." Cartman muttered grumpily and this time Butters pushed him to the side, much to his surprise.

"I-I'm sorry for Eric's rudeness, he's like that all the time." Butters explained after he bowed slightly, his fists bumping together the whole time.

"I see." Kyle replied and leaned back on the wall as he examined everyone again while Kenny sat down next to him. At a proper distance from him, of course. "So, can we finish with the introductions now? I'm really exhausted because of these things." The redhead lifted his hands to show the metal cuffs to the others.

"U-uh... I guess we can remove them already." Butters said and took a step towards the bed, but Craig and Cartman stopped him with hands on his shoulders.

"That's not a good idea, Stotch." Craig muttered as he retreated his hand, tucking it in his pants pocket. "We don't know how he would react to that."

"I hate to say it, but I agree with Craig." Cartman still held Butters tightly in case he wanted to act on impulse again.

"B-but-" Butters protested, then cast his gaze down. "It looks like he's in pain..."

"Oh come on, guys, there's five of us and he's alone." Kenny stated as a matter of fact. "Moreover, that's an improper welcome gift for a royalty."

Stan bit his lower lip, his gaze flicking between his friends before he finally stopped to look at the elf who was now sitting with his hands patiently extended forward to rest on his thighs. The latter also turned around to look back at Stan, the corner of his lips lifting up in a kind smile. It almost made Stan forget about the sharp fangs underneath. So he stood up and moved closer, as if under a spell, his right hand reaching in his pocket to take the keys for the handcuffs.

"Seriously, Marsh? Have you gone crazy?" Craig called out, his voice raising to get Stan's attention. "You don't even have a weapon on you!" Now it was Cartman's turn to kick Craig for giving away such information to a potential enemy.

Kyle raised an eyebrow, his smile growing in an amused smirk. 

_Very naïve indeed. A lot of muscle and a small brain._

But Kenny was right - in his condition, he couldn't take on five people at once, especially in a small room like this. Even if his magic returned, he wouldn't be able to summon it all.

"No, it's about time we free him. And you should know better than us what it's like to be locked somewhere with no way of getting out." Stan turned his head to look at Craig as he said that, then proceeded to unlock the cuffs with slightly trembling fingers.

Craig flipped him off with a hateful glimmer in his eyes as he muttered, "Fuck you all, I'm out of here." With that, he turned swiftly and walked out of the room, the door slamming shut after him.

"Oh jeez..." Butters shook his head and went to follow Craig quickly. "I-I'm gonna talk to him, see you guys later!"

Cartman clicked his tongue when he saw that Stan was still unconvinced and decided to get out too before the elf did something to hurt them.

When Stan finished with removing the cuffs, he took a step back. He wasn't really scared of the elf, but Cartman's and Craig's words repeated over and over in the back of his mind. He and Kenny watched silently as Kyle stretched his arms and legs, then stood up slowly. He looked down at the palms of his hands, his fingers curling into fists and uncurling as the magic hummed pleasantly under his skin.

"Do you feel better now?" Kenny asked after a moment as he tilted his head to the side to take a better look at Kyle's face.

Though Kyle didn't give an answer. Instead, he lunged forward, knocking a clueless Stan to the ground with a hand tightly wrapped around his throat.

"Very foolish of you and your friends to let your guard down like that." The elf bent down as he squeezed his hand, sharp nails digging in the human's skin as he gasped, trying to take a breath, his arms lifting up to catch Kyle's hand and pry it off. Though the redhead didn't give up and only tightened his grip as he said through gritted teeth, "Lucky for you, you're the first human that will go down. Don't worry, I'll finish you off quickly."


	3. It's okay to break down once in a while

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"...You were out? Dude..."**

"Kyle, don't-!" Kenny shouted in panic, raising himself hastily to stop the elf from killing his friend.

Kyle was quick to turn his head to look at Kenny, his eyes glinting dangerously as his free hand flew up to summon and shoot a fireball at the blond, small, but strong enough to throw him back on the bed with a soft thud.

"It's useless to try and sto-" The redhead was cut off by Stan who used the moment of distraction to grab his shoulders and muster up enough strength to slam the elf on the ground, quickly crawling on top of him, knees coming down to pin his arms to the floor. He struggled to catch his breath as Kyle yelled out in frustration, "Get your disgusting body off me!"

This time, Stan didn't comply. His arms and legs shook from the adrenaline, his heartbeat becoming deafening, but he didn't move an inch.

"We tried to help you... and that's your way of showing gratitude?" Stan huffed out as he looked down to the redhead, his expression contorting in a mix of anger, sadness and disappointment. "I expected better from you."

Kyle grunted and tried to lift his arms up along with the rest of his body which trashed around wildly, accompanied by growls and shouts, but Stan kept a firm grip on him even when the elf slammed his knees hard against his back a few times. This went on for a few minutes before Kyle finally gave up, already out of breath and out of strength. He squeezed his eyes shut to stop the angry tears from falling; his teeth clenching so hard that it seemed he would break them any minute now; his face red and sweating from all the efforts. 

"Let me go." He desperately cried out, his voice now barely above a whisper. "I hate you... I hate all of you! Just let me go... Please."

Stan stared at him for a while, his shoulders slowly relaxing when he moved back, his thighs now hovering above the elf's. He lifted said elf up to wrap him in a tight embrace, one trembling hand coming up to place it on the back of his head as he shushed him.

"Come on... Don't cry. Everything's okay." He muttered while Kyle sniffled and gasped above his shoulder. He was still trying to fight back, his fists hitting on Stan's chest weakly, then falling down to grip his shirt as his shoulders shook violently.

"N-nothing is okay... You don't- You don't understand anything." The redhead choked back a sob, but quickly gave up on trying to act strong, even though he was disgusted with himself for showing his weaknesses to a human. He was just tired.

"I know how it feels when you lose something- or someone. All of us here know it. But you have to stand your ground and stay strong." Stan continued to comfort the elf as his hand ran up and down on Kyle's back. "It's okay to cry once in a while, but-" His voice caught in his throat, so he stopped talking, instead focusing on not letting the redhead go.

A good ten minutes later, Kyle already used up all of his stamina for crying himself to sleep on Stan's shoulder. The latter then looked up to see Kenny groaning and trying to get up as he clutched his stomach.

"What happened?" The blond asked weakly, his eyes trying to focus on Stan, but all he saw was his friend's form and something red between his head and shoulder. Of course, he thought it was blood, so he stood up quickly, staggering, but successfully taking two steps towards the other boy. His vision slowly cleared up and his eyebrows shot up in surprise when he saw that the red was the hair of the sleeping elf in Stan's arms. "Woah. For how long exactly was I out?"

Stan blinked up at him with a confused expression.

"...You were out? Dude..."

"Nevermind." Kenny deadpanned, waving his hand dismissively. "Did he hurt you?"

"If we don't count the supposed bruises on my neck, no. I'm fine. But I think he... kind of _broke_." Stan looked down again to the elf, scared that if he were to move, it would wake the other up. "I think it would be good to get him out of this room."

"Don't worry, he could be like that sometimes, at least from what I remember." Kenny said with a half-smile which quickly faded when Stan regarded him again, wide-eyed. "Uh, I mean-"

"You _remember_? How do you know him?"

"Um... We hung out as kids." Kenny explained briefly. "And then some time as teenagers... And that was it. I don't know, it was a hundred years ago."

Stan looked down again, falling deep in thought.

"But... why did he attack you then?"

"As I said, he's like that sometimes." Kenny shrugged and went to the door to open it. "Now let's go and find a better room for him."

"Uh, yeah, about that... There aren't other available rooms." Stan laughed nervously, but still stood up, carefully lifting Kyle up as he did so. "I think-" 

"So he's gonna stay in your room."

"Wait, what? No! He should stay with you. I mean, with you being old friends or acquaintances, or- I don't know." Stan protested, shifting his weight to get a better grip on the elf.

"It was your idea of bringing him here from what I know from the others, so don't complain and take your responsibility." Kenny grinned and held the door open for his friend. "Also, your bed is bigger."

Stan sighed exasperatedly, but nodded after giving it a second thought. He started walking towards the door and as he passed Kenny, he muttered, "In that case, you should go and dig my grave after he wakes up and tries to kill me again."

Kenny just laughed at that, responding with something along the lines of 'you'll survive' before following Stan until they reached the main room. There they split up, Stan going to his room and Kenny joining Butters at the table. Craig and Cartman were nowhere in sight, so Kenny assumed that they were in their rooms or outside to train or look for food. Nevertheless, he hoped for the last option to be true.

——————————

Kyle woke up after a few hours and rolled over on his right side only to be met with something hard against his forehead. He jumped back, startled, and opened his eyes.

"What the-" He sat up quickly and crawled backwards on the bed to escape from the sleeping Stan next to him- and he fell to the ground with a thud. It wasn't gracious and prince-like at all, but he didn't care.

_He just wanted out._

So he stood up, peeking over to see if the human was still sleeping - he rolled to the other side and muttered something, but thankfully, he was still asleep. Now, for the escape... The room was pretty big and it was dark, but Kyle could still make out the door's outlines. He made a run for it and tried the doorknob. Locked.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and went over to the window - slightly open, but it was too high to jump and there wasn't anything to climb on. Not even nearby trees - those looked very far away from here and Kyle cursed under his breath for skipping his lessons on growth magic.

With that im mind, he left the door as an only option, but the key's whereabouts were unknown. The elf looked over to Stan again and sighed. _Of course._ The keys for the handcuffs were in his pocket, so the one for that door could also be there, right?

Kyle tip-toed back to the bed and crawled on top of it to get closer to the human. He held his breath as he extended a careful hand out to feel around Stan's pockets, but the latter rolled over on his stomach, making it hard for the redhead to reach into his pockets.

_Seriously? Why does he move around so much?_

_Wait._

_Is he awake?_

The elf moved closer, his heartbeat traitorously speeding up as he bent down to listen at the human's breathing.

"What are you doing?" Stan muttered groggily, his voice muffled because of his face being pressed into the pillow. "Just go back to sleep."

Kyle jumped back immediately, his eyes widening in surprise, but he quickly regained himself and cleared his throat.

"Give me the key." He demanded, making himself sound stern despite his own drowsiness.

Stan sighed exasperatedly and turned his head to the side to pinch the bridge of his nose, then rub his right eye.

"I'm _really_ not in the mood to fight right now. Just come back here, or on the floor, wherever you want. I want to sleep."

"You- what?" Kyle huffed out a dry laugh, placing a hand on his chest as a sign of being offended. "You dare to give orders to _me_? A mere human like you? Am I a joke to you?"

Stan pushed himself up to turn and lay on his back as he narrowed his eyes at the unbelieving elf.

"Yes." He grumpily pulled the blanket to move it up to his shoulders and closed his eyes. "Now go back to sleep."

Kyle's left eyelid twitched and he cracked his knuckles.

"You've got quite a nerve, don't you?" He moved closer, getting up on his knees, then gripped and threw the blanket away as his hands flew down towards the human's pants. Though he was stopped at the last moment by another pair of hands closing around his wrists and pulling them away so suddenly that the elf lost his balance and fell forward, his chest coming down hard against the human's. "Just- give me the damn key! This is a plea, not an order! Ugh, I mean- damn it!" He growled, frustrated at his own actions and words, and pulled on his arms, but Stan wasn't willing to let him go.

Speaking of Stan, he laughed, completely disrespecting Kyle's authority as he rolled around yet again, but this time to pin the redhead on the bed and hover above him.

"You're not gonna persuade me that easily. And what happened to the whole thing about wanting to kill me?" He casually moved the raging elf's arms above his head, holding them with one hand while he brought his other up to scratch his cheek like all of this was completely normal, nothing out of the ordinary. 

Kyle looked up to scowl at the human, but he remembered about his tactic from yesterday and relaxed, letting his kicking feet to fall to the bed.

"I changed my mind." He calmly explained, his sudden change of mood making Stan raise an eyebrow sceptically.

"Really?"

"Yes. So can I get the key now?"

"Hm... nope." Stan shot a quick smile, then turned serious all of a sudden as he bent down, his nose almost brushing against that of the elf. "And you don't want those cuffs back on your wrists, right?"

"No...?"

"Then you will behave."

"I will if you just give me the damn key!" Kyle protested, raising his voice, but then it fell to a whisper as he put on his best sad face. "Please, _Stan_. I really need to get out of here."

Stan stood motionless for a while, his eyes -which Kyle noticed just now that they were blue- searching for something in the redhead's face. He finally let him go and flopped back down next to him with a sigh.

"You can search all you want, but it's locked from the outside."

"What?!" Kyle exclaimed, shooting back up instantly. "No, no, no! That's- that's a lie, it can't be-" He frantically lifted up the pillows, then the blanket, then slipped his hands in Stan's pockets only to find nothing. He jumped up from the bed and looked around the room, searching through drawers and on the ground - still nothing. He returned to the bed and grabbed the human's collar to shake him up and down. "You're joking, right? Right?! You just hid it somewhere!"

Contrary to his expectations, Stan just blinked up at him blankly.

"Nope. The princess did it."

"What?!" Kyle shouted again, then took a deep breath to say something else before a hand slapped over his mouth, so out came only a confused 'mmph'.

"Stop panicking!" Stan lowered his voice and retreated his hand slowly. "Just accept it. We'll both be able to go out tommorow." He pushed himself up on his elbows, ready to sit up if not for the redhead on top of him, obstructing him to do so. He could and he would move Kyle himself, but he didn't want to anger him further. "Now can you please move, _your highness_? I still want to sleep."

"Y-yeah..." The elf muttered and moved to the side to let Stan take the blanket back to cover himself again with it. After a lot of thought, he laid back down too, his eyes still wide open in shock, especially when the human lifted the blanket to cover him too. After that, the latter let out a sigh and closed his eyes, whispering a barely audible 'good night'.

"Yeah..." Kyle repeated and turned his back to Stan, moving to the edge of the bed as he mentally thanked the blanket for being so big.

So, his lesson for the day was that princess Kenny seemingly didn't want to help him. Or he did, but in his own weird and confusing ways.


	4. Warming up to the gang can't be that bad, right?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Woah, wait, hold on for a second, calm down."**   
>  **"The Dark lord is your brother? What?"**

"Run, please! Save yourself!" The elf queen desperately tried to urge her children out of one of the secret exits of the castle as she frantically looked around. 

"But, Mom, I-" The younger dark-haired elf protested and tried to hold his ground, but his mother kept on pushing him forward.

"Mom, we can't leave you like this!" The older brother of the other elf turned to look at the woman who averted her watery eyes.

"Your father and I will slow them down so you can escape. That's all we can do now. We don't have a chance of escaping together." She explained, her voice cracking with sobs, but she tried to hold a strong front for her children. When they finally reached the exit, she bent down to give her boys a last hug as a farewell. "I love y-"

Next thing the boys knew, their mother was on the ground in a pool of blood. A sword came out of her back as the weapon's owner pulled it back with a grin before shouting, "They're over here!"

The redheaded elf didn't have time to think - he grabbed his little brother and stormed out of the castle, breaking into a run for the forest nearby. The younger elf was still in shock, stumbling, but managing to catch up with his brother.

"Woah, hold your horses there, you have no way of escaping now." A voice in front of them called out, causing the boys to halt to a stop. There he stood in all his terrifying glory - Clyde, the Dark lord. He was covered from head to toe with metal armor, so when the older elf cast an attack spell towards him, it flew back around and over his head. Clyde laughed as he raised a hand up. "Get them!"

His warriors jumped from the bushes, moving closer to the elves who turned around, starting to run again. They didn't know how, but they soon ended up on the battlefield which they previously called home.

"Kyle, I'm scared..." The younger elf cried out after his brother who still held his hand tightly. "I don't know how to fight yet, Mom is dead, Dad probably too- I don't want to lose you too!"

"I know. I'll protect you, don't worry." Kyle assured, though even he couldn't believe himself. Though he didn't have time to react when he was swiftly pushed to the ground by another of Clyde's warriors. He recognised him as Clyde's right hand, but did that really matter right now? He tried to fight him off, but a short knife came down in his side. Then it was pulled out just to come down again in his stomach, then again and again, before someone stopped the attacker and he retreated, cursing under his breath.

Kyle tried to breathe, but instead gagged and coughed out blood which he wiped with a weak arm as he lifted his head up to look for his brother. And there he was, his hands and legs tied as he was thrown like a sack of potatoes on a horse which was led by Clyde himself.

"Why do we even need him?" A rather young-sounding boy asked, receiving a chuckle from the Dark lord.

"Just in case the other one makes it out alive. And so that you guys can have an entertainment."

"Ike..." Kyle whispered as his head fell back to the ground, his chest heaving with the effort to take a breath while Clyde and his warriors walked away.

* * *

"Ike!" Kyle found himself shouting upon waking up the next morning. He bolted up in a sitting position, panting, sweating, crying and shaking violently as he clutched the blanket tightly.

"Dude, what is it now..." Stan muttered from next to him and also sat up while rubbing his eyes.

The elf turned to him and grasped his shoulders with trembling fingers, the nails at their tips digging in the human's shirt and skin yet again, actually for the third time for those three days, Stan's half-asleep brain noted.

"I-Ike, the Dark lord, my brother, I need- I need to find him, he's probably still alive-" Kyle blurted out so quickly that the words almost blurred together. His eyes were wide, staring at Stan, but somewhere else at the same time as he gasped, trying to regain his breath.

"Woah, wait, hold on for a second, calm down." Stan returned the gesture by placing his hands on the redhead's shoulders, rubbing them gently to soothe him despite the pain. "The Dark lord is your brother? What?"

Kyle paused to swallow his panic and shake his head.

"No, he took my brother and I, I need to find him. He's certainly waiting for me or- or he probably thinks I'm dead and..."

Before Stan could give an answer, Kenny unlocked the door and barged in, an annoyed and disheveled half-asleep Craig trailing close behind him with a dagger in hand, though he quickly hid that behind his back when he realized that there wasn't a real threat for Stan.

"Well, good morning, I guess." Kenny blinked a few times, his brows knitted in confusion and worry as he approached the bed, sitting down next to the distressed elf. "What happened?"

"I don't really know. He just woke up, saying that the Dark lord took his brother." Stan explained and retreated his hands, but the elf caught them, maybe on instinct, maybe on impulse or something else, he didn't have a clue.

"Oh, you poor thing... Come here." Kenny whispered and spread his arms, welcoming the elf in a warm embrace. "We'll help you find your brother, but you need to recover fully until then. And we're still not finished with the plan for infiltrating the Dark lord's castle, though we're working on it, so don't worry."

Kyle nodded and slowly wrapped his arms around Kenny's torso. He calmed down after a while because of the nymph's soothing energy that seemed to transfer to his body, flowing smoothly, almost as a mother's lullaby.

In the meantime Stan pushed himself to stand up, but Craig stopped him as he raised his free hand.

"I'll go get Stotch and fatass. You stay here." He said, as if reading his friend's thoughts. Stan gave him a nod and with that, Craig left to wake the others up.

"I think I'm fine now, thank you." Kyle muttered after a while, slowly letting go of Kenny. "And I'm sorry for attacking you yesterday. I wasn't really thinking straight."

"I know. It's okay." Kenny smiled and brushed a few strands of hair from the elf's face, tucking them behind his ear. "Come on now, it's time for breakfast. After that, while the others are working on the plan, do you want me to teach you how to shoot with a bow?"

Kyle thought about it for a moment, then nodded and stood up slowly.

"Also, I have a few gifts for you." Kenny added as he also stood up and fixed the skirt of his dress. "But it's a surprise that will come after breakfast." He winked and turned to regard Stan who was currently changing his clothes. "You coming, big boy?"

"Dude!" Stan scowled at the blond, then rolled his eyes while fixing his belt with his back turned to Kenny and Kyle. "Of course I'm coming."

Kyle looked at him to examine the red marks on the sides of his neck, then the ones on his shoulders.

"Wait." The redhead said, his voice sounding more like he was pleading, rather than his usual demanding tone.

"Huh? What?" Stan turned to look at him, and he was stopped by a warm hand that pressed on his back, growing warmer and warmer as the seconds passed with Kyle closing his eyes and mumbling something under his breath. The foreign feeling was strange at first - making Stan's skin tingle uncomfortably, then something calm washed over him in waves, making him feel like he's floating. After a minute he felt lighter and brighter, his drowsiness going away along with his scars and bruises. The elf finally pulled his hand back and Stan thought he saw him smiling, but he turned away too quickly, already walking to the door without another word. 

"Well, there's nothing better that elven magic, don't you think?" Kenny grinned and patted Stan's back before following Kyle to show him the way to the main room.

Stan just nodded, still in a daze and moved his feet almost automatically to catch up with Kenny and Kyle. They joined Craig and Butters around the table while Cartman set plates with food along with cutlery on the table. Stan had forgotten it was his turn today to cook and make the table. Judging by his irritated expression, he had forgotten too, but Craig had surely reminded him.

"Oh, g-good morning, your highnesses. Stan." Butters stood up and bowed to greet Kyle and Kenny properly to which the two replied with small smiles and Stan waved his hand before sitting down in his place. 

Craig just offered a slight nod and started eating while Cartman made sure to show his annoyance by muttering a quiet 'good morning' through gritted teeth.

"I still don't trust this guy." Kyle whispered while eying Cartman suspiciously.

"We don't trust him completely either, but he's a good wizard. He may be rude, but he's really useful in battle." Kenny whispered back and gave a friendly squeeze to Kyle's shoulder before he moved to sit next to Stan. That left only one seat available - in front of Stan and between Craig and Butters. Well, at least it wasn't next to... what was his name again? Fatass? Whatever. The only thing he knew for sure was that he didn't like him at all and it seemed that the feeling was mutual.

The breakfast was peaceful for the first time in forever, provided by Cartman's unstoppable munching of the food, the silence broken from time to time only by Butters' questions about elves and magic and Kyle's brief answers. When they finished, Cartman grumpily took the empty plates and cutlery and disappeared in another room to wash them. Kenny excused himself and instructed Kyle to wait for him here before he went to his room.

"So, I think it's about time we go to work on the plan as we have another reason for defeating you-know-who." Craig regarded Stan and Butters and stood up, then moved his gaze over to Kyle. "Do you want to come too?"

"I do, but I'll be training with Kenny." The elf leaned back in his seat and looked up to Craig. "You go ahead. I guess we can join you later." As he watched them go, he thought that probably it wasn't that bad to have trustworthy people who could help him in the rescue of his brother. Otherwise he would be all alone against the Dark lord's great army.

Kyle waited patiently for the nymph to return, and when he did, his hands were hiding something behind his back.

"Close your eyes." The blond said, a wide smile adorning his face as he stepped closer. The elf complied and stood up, closing his eyes. There was shuffling of fabric and something covering his shoulders and back, something warm and familiar. Then something else was put on his head before Kenny pulled back. "You can look now."

Kyle opened his eyes again and looked down, an excited smile tugging on his lips when he saw his red robe, the blood on it thoroughly washed and the cuts sewed masterfully so that there wasn't any trace of the happenings from a few days ago. He took some time to accommodate to the feeling of his crown laying on his head again. Then he looked back up to the nymph, taking his hand to lift it up and press the back of it against his lips.

"Thank you, princess."

"Oh, come on, you don't have to be so formal." The blond chuckled and pulled the elf close to wrap his arms around him. "We're all friends here."

"So making friends is inevitable then." Kyle remarked with a huff of laughter as he returned the embrace, taking in Kenny's calming earthy scent. "I guess I could get used to it with people like you and Stan. And Butters and Craig, of course."


	5. An unexpected guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"That's... that's not what we meant when we told you to win their trust."**

"So, let's see through plan A again. Butters?" Stan stepped aside to let Butters take his place in front of the wall which was filled with drawings of maps of the Dark lord's castle and its surroundings, as well as all kinds of helpful information written all over and around them.

"We already know that the castle has only three exits because the Dark lord obviously feels confident enough that nobody would dare to set foot in his castle without permission or being dragged there unwillingly." Butters cleared his throat and pointed to a blank space between a wavy line-representing a river- and the castle, where there was an X mark. "We start digging a tunnel here, in the Barbarians' wasteland in order to get to these three exits and ambush the Dark lord's guards, though first of all, Craig needs to earn the barbarians' trust and get them to help us."

"Why me though?" Craig asked and tilted his head to the side. "Can't it be Marsh of Cartman?"

"We've talked about this. You're better than any of us when it comes to negotiations." Stan walked over to Craig to sit next to him. "Furthermore, you're level-headed, so you don't panic in dangerous situations. And your reflexes are quick."

Butters nodded in agreement and Craig waved his hand with a sigh, allowing the blond to proceed with the explanations.

"As I was saying, Craig will be negotiating with the barbarians. And now that we have Kyle with us, he can stay in the sidelines along with Kenny so they can heal and protect Craig if the barbarians don't wish to cooperate. As for me, Stan and Eric - we'll be setting up traps here, here and here," Butters pointed at three other X's above the castle, "Because those are the places which the Dark lord's scouts are going around the most, every day between noon and early afternoon. That way, we can decrease their numbers, so that the final attack could be easier. And one more thing - we'll dress ourselves like the Dark lord's warriors in case anyone sees us while we're setting up the traps. If they find out who we are," Butters paused to take a breath -and wish that Kenny was there with them to see his paladin being so confident-, finishing with a whisper. "We kill them off as fast as possible."

The boys spent the next few hours in reviewing their plans and strategies and thinking of new ones while Kenny and Kyle were training outside.

"So I do this," Kyle lifted up the bow which Kenny made specially for him when they went out, and took an arrow to put it on the arrow rest. He relaxed his shoulders and elbows like Kenny taught him as he aimed at a nearby tree. "Then I pull the string and-" As he pulled on the string, he held his breath and released the arrow, sending it flying towards the tree. It hit the edge of it, a good two inches away from the center. "Aw, come on!" The elf furrowed his brows in frustration and lowered his arms, letting them fall to his sides.

"Well, it's better than the last time!" Kenny praised him with a smile and patted his shoulder. "Try not to think too much. Breathe in, breathe out. Empty your mind from everything as you become one with the arrow." He stood behind Kyle as the latter nodded and took another arrow, aiming it at the same tree. He did as he was told and just before he released the arrow, Kenny whispered, "Now imagine the Dark lord standing there and shoot."

And bullseye! The arrow went right into the center of the tree.

Kyle huffed out an unsteady breath, then smiled as he turned to regard the nymph.

"Thank you."

"Oh, you don't need to thank me." Kenny replied with a smile of his own and moved to stand beside the redhead. "Now let's try materializing some arrows. You'll need that in case you run out of actual arrows."

Kyle nodded as he watched Kenny lift his bow up, his free hand positioned as if he held an arrow, though he was gripping on thin air. But then he concetrated his magic in his hand while explaining, "You need to find all of your feelings from deep in your gut, even those that you chose to push back, then pull them up and mold them so they become the shape of an arrow," While he spoke, a beautifully carved wooden arrow materialized in his hand. "Then you hold on to those feelings... Aim... And let them follow their target." The blond pulled on the string, then let the arrow fly forward, hitting Kyle's previously fired arrow and splitting it in two.

"Woah, that was a perfect shot!" Kyle exclaimed with an excited smile, replicating the one on Kenny's face. "Okay, I'll try it out now." He turned forward again to concentrate and do the same thing that the nymph did. But as he pulled his feelings out as Kenny said, his whole arms engulfed in flames. Even though it made him panic at first, he managed to regain his composure and closed his eyes, imagining the fire morphing and flickering around to form a solid arrow. He opened his eyes and aimed at the tree, the poor thing exploding as soon as the arrow touched it.

"Uh- Okay, that didn't go according to plan. Maybe we should have started slow with only a part of your feeli- Huh?" Kenny looked over to the elf who was now on his knees on the ground, trying to catch his breath, his energy completely drained from that single shot. _Yep, definitely had to start out slow._ "Are you okay?" Kenny kneeled next to him with a panicked expression and when the elf fell down, he quickly caught him to soften his fall to the ground. "Hey- Kyle? Your highness? Your ethereal otherworldliness?? Dude! Don't pass out again, please!" He slapped the redhead's cheek lightly a few times, but received just a quiet grunt from him before he fell asleep from the exhaustion. Kenny groaned in frustration and stood up as he grabbed Kyle's arms to try and drag him over to the house, but he didn't get that far before his muscles started to cry out in pain, so he left him back down on the ground and ran inside and in the basement to look for the others.

"I think we should-" Craig stopped mid-sentence while pointing to one of the maps on the wall to look towards the sound of Kenny's hurried footsteps before he almost broke down the door off its hinges.

"Guys, guys, guys! We have a problem! Kyle overworked himself and he passed out and I can't get him in and someone might come and-" The nymph flailed his arms around as he hyperventilated, his usual calm demeanor gone at the moment he saw the elf fall completely limp and shallowly breathing.

The first one to react was Stan - as soon as he heard the redhead's name, he jumped up and made a run for the door, almost tripping on the stairs. Then it was Craig who followed him quickly, and Cartman who muttered something about 'pain in the ass' as he took his spell book and went after Stan and Craig. This left an opportunity for Butters to go and comfort Kenny as he enveloped him in a hug, whispering soothing words in his ear. It seemed to calm the nymph down after a while and he practically melted in his loyal paladin's arms.

Back outside, Stan suddenly froze in his place when he saw a young deer next to Kyle, licking at his cheek caringly. He furrowed his brows in confusion, but besides that, there was movement in the bushes nearby, so Stan nudged Craig to go and check out who or what was there.

"I know." Craig muttered, his voice barely audible, and he took off in the direction of the movement.

In the meantime, Stan moved forward with cautious steps so as to not scare the deer off, but he failed - the animal raised its head, its ears perking up and it ran away, disappearing in the woods.

"Damn, that guy is like some kind of a Disney princess with all the attracting animals and shit." Cartman muttered as he stepped closer to Stan and the unconscious elf.

"Like what now?" Stan turned to regard Cartman, looking extremely confused.

"Uh, nothing. I didn't say anything. Just get your elf boyfriend and take him in before someone else comes." Cartman muttered grumpily and flipped through the pages of his book for some attack spells just in case.

"Dude! He's not my-"

"Hi there." Craig suddenly appeared next to them out of nowhere, donning a dark splatter of blood on the front of his jacket and holding a dead rabbit by its ears in his left hand. "Did you miss me?"

"Jesus-fucking-Christ!" Cartman exclaimed, jumping up as he placed a hand on his chest. "Can you not be so creeper-like every once in a while for a change?!"

"It's kinda a part of my job to do that, so no. Oh, and by the way, I found this guy too." Craig stepped to the side to reveal a short, shirtless, tattoo-covered, disheveled-looking boy with unruly blond hair. He was trembling slightly, probably in fear or frustration, but he tried his best at staring at Cartman and Stan intimidatingly.

Stan had just lifted Kyle up, but almost dropped him when he saw the stranger.

"Wha- A barbarian?! Dude, where did you find him? And why are you holding a dead rabbit?"

"Yeah, about that." Craig picked his nose with the pinky of his free hand, then let his arm fall to his side. "I _accidentally_ stole his lunch, so now he's following me to get it back." As he spoke, the barbarian reached out to retrieve his rabbit, but Craig held it up higher, so he received a frustrated 'gah!' from the blond.

"That's... that's not what we meant when we told you to win their trust." Stan muttered nervously, then looked around. "Just- let's take him in before anyone else comes and we'll see what we're gonna do."

"I honestly can't believe you guys. Just sheltering different creatures even though you don't know if they're dangerous or not. That's fucking ridiculous. Screw you guys." Cartman shook his head and walked back in the house, then locked himself in his room.

Craig and Stan just shrugged and followed him, the barbarian trailing close behind Craig in attempts to make a surprise attack, but failing every time. Kenny and Butters were just walking out of the basement, but they stopped in their tracks upon seeing the new guy in their already strange enough group.

"Oh jeez!" Butters' eyes shot wide open as he froze in his place. "T-this isn't according to the plan at all!"

"Say that to the guy who stole the barbarian's lunch." Stan nodded to Craig. He felt the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose, but his hands were busy with holding on Kyle, so that would apparently have to wait. Instead, he shook his head and made his way upstairs to his room.

"Oh!" Kenny clapped his hands, suddenly forgetting about the unconscious elf -as everybody else except Stan did- and ran up to the barbarian. He bent down in order to get to his eye-level and greeted him with a wide smile. "I'm princess Kenny. What's your name?" He excitedly asked, but the barbarian didn't seem to accept the closeness well and jumped back with a startled yelp.

"Ngh- Tweek!" He squealed, his left eyelid twitching as he returned his gaze to Craig who just stared back at him apathetically, still holding that dead rabbit out of the boy's reach. "Give my rabbit back, thief!" He helplessly jumped and waved his hands, but to no avail.

"Well, it's fun to tease you, so no can do." Craig looked over to Butters, not bothered in the slighest bit by Tweek who now tried to climb on him like he was a damn tree. "Hey Stotch, can you cook this for us? I think our Tweek here would appreciate it."

"B-but today is Eric's turn to-"

"You brought a- what?!" A startled shout could be heard from upstairs before Kyle came down, almost running on the stairs with Stan following him and yelling for him to come back before he overworks himself again. The redhead came to a stop when he joined the others, confusion clearly evident in his face when he saw Tweek. "Oh. Uh, hi there. Nice to meet you, I guess."

Stan almost crashed in the elf's back, but he succeeded in stopping just in time to avoid that.

"Fiddlesticks..." Butters muttered, unbelieving and confused as hell.

"Okay, this," Stan huffed out a nervous laugh, "Is gonna become a disaster."

And poor clueless Tweek just flicked his gaze between Craig, Kenny, Butters, Stan and Kyle, still clutched on Craig's jacket with legs wrapped around his waist like a koala stuck on a tree.


	6. He's alive

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Oh, you jokester. Where did you get that humor from? Firkle?"**

Ike rolled around on the cold hard ground for a while, trying to go back to sleep, but the fact that there wasn't any pillow or a blanket for him, combined with the metal cuffs around his wrists, didn't help at all. He raised up to sit, flinching at the loud clanking noise of the chains. It seemed to wake up one of his guardians, more like captivators - a boy around his age, or rather around his human age which was 17, barely 18, or so Ike guessed. He wasn't really sure as he lost count decades ago.

That particular boy had introduced himself as Firkle one or two nights ago probably. It was hard to keep up with time in a dark dungeon with no light source except from the torches on the wall which didn't help at all. He raised up slightly from his seat against the metal bars and turned to look at the elf.

"Hey, guys, the little bird is up early this morning." He monotonously announced and looked around to regard the other three guardians, but they were nowhere in sight. "Huh. So they left me alone here again. I can't really rely on them, can I?" Firkle remarked with a sigh and turned back to Ike. "Anyway, how are you?"

The elf had already gotten used to Firkle's monologs, so he just waited for him patiently until he received that weirdly fond look from the human that served as a sign to let Ike know that he was talking to him, not to himself.

"Do you even need to ask?" Ike replied with a sigh of his own as his shoulders slumped a little. And really, judging by his torn dirtied clothes, his messy hair and the dark circles under his eyes that he donned now over his too-pale skin, he looked terrible. "I need sunlight, I need these things off my wrist and I need proper food, not those scraps you give me all the time!" Despite his worn-out looks, the young elf still had the strength to sit with his back straightened and his head held up high.

"You royalties are really strange." Firkle scooted closed to the bars, sitting cross-legged in front of the elf. "Especially you. You still have the nerve to act all mighty even when you're in that condition. Well, I guess it's okay. I would act like this if I were you."

"Then you must know how I feel, right?" Ike's eyes suddenly glimmered with something resembling hope and he moved closer to the other boy, staring at him intently. Firkle stared back, amused at the elf's reactions. "Don't you just- I don't know, have the sudden urge to free me from this place?"

For the time he was held captive here, the young elf learned one important thing - Firkle liked to play around with him, so Ike could play around with him too and manipulate him into giving him almost all the things that he wanted. He didn't like the fact that he had to retort to such dirty human-like tricks, but he was smart enough to know that those tricks could get him out of here eventually.

So, the elf reached his hands out to cup the human's cheeks, his face coming closer to the other's. 

"Do you really know how I feel? Or are you just trying to be sympathetic again?" He muttered as he tilted his head slightly to the side, his nose brushing against the other boy's cheek.

"I know it. I've been in your place, so I know what it's like." Firkle responded, his own hands moving up, but stopping to grip the metal bars. "It's terrible. And I think you should be thankful for even the scraps of food that I give you. Do you know how much trouble I have to go through to take them without anyone noticing me?" He lowered his voice to a whisper as he leaned his forehead on Ike's. "The Dark lord has eyes everywhere. Even on his ass, for that matter. But that's just my assumption. I haven't really seen his ass, but I've seen his face, so it must be pretty much the same."

Ike huffed out a quiet chuckle before stopping himself to think over his choice of actions. Kyle -if he was even alive- would surely be very mad and disappointed in him if he were to find out that his little brother's heartbeat was actually quickening because of a mere human who he haven't even met before. Pathetic. A disgrace to elves.

Though the dark thoughts were quickly washed away by Firkle slowly slipping his hand into Ike's as he came closer, as much as he could, to graze his lips on the other's. After that he pulled back, just leaving the elf hanging with his eyes partly closed. These little games of push and pull were probably one of the reasons why Ike's stomach was turning around like that around that boy. 

"Do you think," Ike breathed out and pulled back a little. "That my brother will come for me?"

"Are you seriously asking this _right now_? He's probably dead by now because of the blood loss from these wounds that Token gave him. Just accept the fact that death is inevitable, even for immortal creatures like you. Oh, and the suffering part. That's inevitable too. We're all the same when it comes to this - we all feel pain, and we'll certainly all die one day. You know, because of that, there isn't really a point in living at all. Right? I don't understand what the hassle is with all that 'I wanna live and have fun before I die'. I mean, it's stupid 's what I'm saying. We're all gonna die at the end."

_Well, fuck. He fell into an existential-crisis-like mood again._

Ike watched silently as the human's thought flew out through his mouth, one thought leading to another one with little to no connection between them.

"Okay, okay. I got your point." The elf rubbed his thumbs against the human's cheeks, though he couldn't really understand why he showed affection in that way - it was kind of on impulse or something. It was strange. Even more stranger when the human moved his free hand on the back of Ike's neck to pull him closer as they lips locked together. There was nothing really special about it - just skin against skin. And their unexperienced young selves didn't do much, just staying like that for a few seconds, completely motionless.

Another thing that Ike learned while being here - Firkle was a really mysterious and confusing person, even for Ike who studied humans' behavior secretly for decades, with all his sneaking out of the castle to explore human villages and using spells to hide his pointy ears and sharp fangs. Though now he was glad that he had his fangs as he used them to nip at the human's lower lip when they pulled back - a supposedly useful trick he learned while being around humans.

"Nice." Firkle muttered, the slighest trace of a smile painted on his lips.

And here's the third thing about him - he was a masochist. Ike still couldn't quite put his finger on why some humans reacted like that to pain, but... his ponderings would have to wait for later because they were interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps. The elf moved back to his place in the corner of the small cell and leaned on the wall as the owners of those footsteps came in the dungeon. Firkle turned to regard them with a bored sigh.

"Good morning, your dark majesty."

Ike's eyes snapped open at that and he craned his neck to look at the brunet and his personal guards. His 'dark majesty's' right hand who almost stabbed Kyle to death was also there.

"Hello there, little one." The Dark lord stopped in front of the cell to get a better look at the elf. The words rolled off his tongue with such care, barely concealing the hatred that was practically oozing out of him. Truly disgusting.

"What do you want?" Ike stood up with his fists clenched, but didn't move another inch, nor did he tremble under the Dark lord's gaze that was carefully examining him from head to toe - he wouldn't make that mistake again as he did on his first day here.

"Oh, I was just passing by and decided to let you in on the news." He paused for a dramatic effect and then smirked. "Your brother is alive. He'll join you soon, don't worry. You two could be my best trophies yet in my whole collection."

The young elf bared his teeth, growling lowly. "I can't wait for him to come and shred you into pieces. Then you will be the trophy."

The Dark lord laughed and shook his head, his hands coming to rest on his hips.

"Oh, you jokester. Where did you get that humor from? Firkle? By the way, I see that you've developed quite the fondness for him, so what if I was to..." He trailed off while said boy looked up to him, raising an eyebrow, but otherwise remaining stoic. The Dark lord's right hand looked more than ready to do anything he wanted. "Nah, that wouldn't be fun." Clyde waved his hand dismissively and turned to walk back out of the dungeon. "Anyway, I'm going to make the preparations for your brother and his group of weirdos' welcome party."

Ike waited for him and his people to go out, then fell down to his knees slowly, releasing a shaky sigh while happy tears formed in the corners of his eyes as he muttered, "He's- he's alive. I'm so glad..."

Firkle on the other side -literally- seemed to get fed up with all the bars and pulled his key ring out to unlock the door to Ike's cell. Then he walked in and kneeled next to the elf to wrap his arms around him awkwardly.

"But do you think that he'll help us all? That would be nice, but now that I think about it, it would be strange if he did so, you know, with us being the Dark lord's warriors and stuff."

"Of course he will. He may hate humans, but I can change his mind." Ike looked up with a small smile as he enveloped the other boy with an almost death grip because of his excitement. "He's alive! I can't believe this. I mean, he was always strong, but to survive these wounds..."

"Maybe that's why the Dark lord wants you two so much - for being so exceptional. But then again, there isn't any logic that his right hand almost killed your brother, I mean they want him alive, right? But maybe then he wasn't strong enough so the Dark lord left him like this, knowing that someone else was coming to help him? Maybe another elf? Maybe a human or something else? But what if he made it through everything alone? That would be truly exceptional."

Ike waited for that look again, then huffed out a laugh and bumped his head in the human's chest.

"You're thinking about it more than me. Don't get me wrong - I appreciate it, but..."

"I always think more than everyone else if you haven't noticed." Firkle let his free hand fall on the other's head as he played around with his hair, then with his left ear, just out of curiosity.

The young elf looked up to him again, his eyebrows slightly raised.

"What are you doing?"

"I don't really know. My hands are doing what they want."

"Well," Ike raised up to stand on his knees and come to eye-level with the human so they were face to face again, noses brushing, but minus the cold metal bars pressing on their cheeks. "Don't your hands want to remove these things from my wrists?"

Firkle thought about it for a second, then released a sigh and pulled back a little.

"Just for a while and as long as you don't run. You're smart enough to know that you can't escape from here alone. Not that I won't help you, but two against hundreds of thousands is a pretty big difference." When the boy finished unlocking the cuffs, he placed them on the floor carefully so they wouldn't clank loudly as they always did. Though just as he was raising up again, he was pushed on the floor with something pressing on his lips. The elf's face was being too close, and his hands were on the human's cheeks again, so he figured it out easily.

Well, at least it was good that Ike listened to him and didn't look like he wanted to run for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do I feel guilty for writing rushed/almost fake/weird romance between Ike and Firkle? yes.
> 
> do I care? not really because it's kinda important to the plot, so :D


	7. That's 'your highness' for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"What? Craig does it all the time. I thought it was a human greeting or something."**

"Basically, our plan is to ask your people to help us with infiltrating the Dark lord castle." Craig waved his fork around while explaining which caused Kyle to lean to Butters every time the fork came near him. 

"Ngh- That's- That's not gonna end well! We're thousand, they're-... they're more! Much more." Tweek continued to munch on his now cooked rabbit, but now his whole face was somehow covered in grease. No, scratch that. He was eating without cutlery, of course he would look like this.

"Quality over quantity." Craig relaxed his hands on the table and leaned forward. "Well, what do you say? You want to gut at least a few of his warriors, don't you? To feel that blood leaking out and-"

"Craig, what the hell?" Kyle was now shooting daggers at him, his face practically screaming 'I'm really disgusted' even though he didn't say it out loud. "Can't you talk about killing after we finish eating?"

"Nope." Craig tried his best to grin with his teeth clenched, then turned his attention to the barbarian who was listening to him intently, his body leaned forward over the table and his mouth full of food. "So what do you say?"

"Do we get to go now?!" Tweek's whole face lighted up as he said that, though his words came muffled because of his full mouth. Luckily, Craig looked like he was trained to understand people in such situations by the way he shot a bored look at Stan who smiled nervously.

"Not yet, but you're free to tell your people about it so they can prepare."

Tweek seemed to not like the idea of waiting, so he pulled on his hair and yelled in frustration after swallowing his bite, "Okay! I'll go!" He stood up, but squinted at Craig while pointing to him. "But you have to swear to not steal my food anymore!"

Craig raised his hands in surrender and gave a small smile which seemed to surprise Kenny, Butters and Kyle- even Stan who knew him for the longest time.

"I _promise_." Tweek glared at him, so he quickly added, "A thief keeps their promises. Don't worry."

The barbarian nodded curtly and took the rest of his rabbit before making his way to the front door.

"Well, that was interesting." Kenny remarked with a smile, then shouted, "Cartman, you can come out now! The coast is clear!"

There were some inaudible shouts before Cartman emerged from his room and joined them while muttering something about barbarians and how he hates them.

"Dude, you hate everyone." Stan pointed out, accompanied by an eye-roll, then proceeded to eat.

"Y-yeah, it can be unhealthy, you know." Butters smiled nervously, but when Cartman glared at him, his smile faded quickly and he sank down in his seat.

"So, how did it go? Are the barbarians on our side?" Cartman asked, the corner of his upper lip turning up in disgust at the word 'barbarians'. Craig just muttered a seemingly disinterested 'yeah' in response.

"Why is he like that?" Kyle whispered, leaning towards Stan so that Cartman wouldn't hear them. "The barbarians are also humans, so what is his problem?"

"I don't really know." Stan whispered back with a shrug. "He only likes himself."

"What are you two talking about? Something about me?" Cartman snapped, slamming a hand on the table. And, much to his surprise -and everyone else's-, Kyle flipped him off. "You better get that finger down before I cut it off!"

There was a loud gasp from Butters who hurriedly caught Kyle's wrist to lower his arm.

Kenny sputtered and covered his lips with one hand as he broke in a fit of giggles while Stan stared at the clueless elf with raised eyebrows.

"What? Craig does it all the time. I thought it was a human greeting or something." Kyle's confused gaze flicked between everyone at the table before he crossed his arms in front of his chest and scowled. "What?! Nobody told me anything about this!"

Now Kenny and Stan burst out laughing at the elf's reaction and Cartman's angry red face. Craig shook his head and stood up.

"I'm out." The thief said simply and took off to his room, but not before flipping everyone off for goodbye.

"Y-your highness," Butters began quietly while bumping his fists together, "I don't think Craig's the best role model."

"No, no, it's okay." Cartman suddenly said, raising a hand as he looked at Kyle with a grin and murderous glint in his eyes. "That way, I'll have one more reason for blowing your long-eared head off."

Stan and Kenny turned serious all of a sudden, their eyes widening in surprise when Kyle stood up, replying to Cartman's glare with one of his own and baring his teeth.

"Bring it on, fatass."

Okay, it looked like he made another mistake because of Craig, judging by Cartman's abrupt raising from his seat and the way the fingers of his left hand lighted up, becoming fiery red.

"Oh jeez-" Butters jumped up quickly to pull the elf aside just in time when Cartman sent a few fire balls flying his way. Luckily, he missed by a few inches and shot the wall behind him instead.

"Holy-" Stan also raised from his seat, catching Cartman's hands and pulling them behind his back to restrain him. Needless to say, it was pretty hard with Cartman wiggling around to free himself and shouting profanities. "Stop that, Cartman, God damn it! Why do you have to be so -ugh- immature?!"

"Let me go! Didn't you hear the way that fucking elf called me?!"

"That's 'your highness' for you, you stupid inconsiderate human!" Kyle growled and raised his hand to attack Cartman, but another hand stopped him quickly.

Now Butters had to restrain a raging Kyle and it wasn't going well, so Kenny stood up, slamming his hands on the table and shouting, "Everyone shut up!" That successfully silenced them and brought their attention to the nymph. "I refuse to listen to you all bickering every day, so from now on, everyone's going to eat in their rooms. Am I clear?" Kenny glared at Cartman and Stan, even at Kyle.

After they answered with a quiet synchronized 'yes, princess', Cartman broke free from Stan's grasp and took his plate to be the first one to retreat to his room. Then it was Kyle's turn, though he left without his food and with a grumpy 'hmph'.

"Fiddlesticks..." Butters sighed and also went to his room with his head lowered, even though he didn't do anything wrong, but he still felt bad for the others.

"Should I come with you to tal-" Kenny looked at Stan, but he cut him off by shaking his head.

"I'll be fine, don't worry." And with that, Stan took off after Kyle.

Kenny stood there for a while, then clicked his tongue when he realized that he was to repair that wall. For the hundredth time this year.

Meanwhile, Stan joined the elf in his- well, already their room. He stepped forward cautiously towards Kyle who paced back and forth, muttering something in a foreign language - probably elven, Stan figured as he got closer to stop Kyle by placing his hands on his shoulders.

"Huh?" Kyle looked up to the human, jumping back slightly, but then relaxing when he saw that it was just Stan. "What? Why are you touching me now?"

"Um, well... It's a show of affection for humans. I mean- not _that_ kind of affection!" Stan retreated his hands, smiling sheepishly while Kyle just tilted his head in confusion. "It's uh, it's something we do sometimes to someone who is or looks like they're distressed."

"Oh." Kyle simply answered, his confusion going away to be replaced with a look of understatement. He stood silent for a while, then took a step closer, his hands coming to rest on the human's cheeks and his forehead leaning on the latter's. "We do this in such cases."

Stan froze in his place when his brain registered the elf's soft warm skin and the even warmer breath tickling his lips when he spoke.

"Wh- uh... This... Yeah. It's nice." Stan cleared his throat and remained completely still, not wanting to break the moment, so he replicated Kyle's movements. "Yep. Definitely nice."

"You're nervous about something." Kyle remarked after a second and closed his eyes.

"How did you- Did you sense it or something?"

"Stuttering, unsteady breathing, irregular quickened pulse, raised body temperature." The elf stated as a matter of fact, then pulled back to look at the shocked human. He rolled his eyes and huffed out a chuckle. "I was joking about the pulse. I can't feel that. Unless I do this." Kyle looked down to navigate his hand to Stan's chest and hummed to himself. "Okay, maybe I was right."

Stan laughed nervously and took a step back as he averted his gaze, embarrassed from the sudden change in the elf's mood for the nth time in these past days.

"I don't really... I'm not used to such closeness." He explained quietly and moved to sit on the bed while Kyle followed him and sat down next to him. "I mean, just regular hugs and holding hands are acceptable, but everything more intimate than that is meant for parents and their children and... lovers." The last word came out as a whisper and Stan was quick to turn his red face away from the elf's sight. 

"Oh. Wait. You mean lovers as in soulmates? Is that what you call them?"

"Uh, yeah, something like that. Though we don't really..." Stan shifted in his seat to face the redhead again while thinking of the proper words to use. "Most of us don't have a single partner who stays with us throughout our lives, so it's hard to call them exactly soulmates."

"Oh." Kyle repeated and nodded. "By the way, is that gesture with the middle finger inappropriate? Also, I thought that guy's name was fatass..."

"Yeah, about that - that gesture is normally considered rude, but Craig does it all the time just because. It's his trademark of sorts. And 'fatass's name's Cartman. Again, only Craig calls him that to piss him off." Stan finished with a nervous smile and stood up. "So, uh... I guess it's time to go to bed now."

"Right." Kyle followed suit and walked over to the table where he left his crown, then looked over to Stan. "But I don't really have any other clothes, you know..."

"Yeah, working on it."

After a minute of searching, Stan gave the elf a fresh set of clothes... and just stood there awkwardly.

"Do you mind turning around now or you want another scratch?" Kyle deadpanned with his eyebrow raised. Stan responded with a nervous laugh and turned on his heel to walk away and get changed too. The redhead sighed and turned away, just in case, to shrug his robe off." You humans are really weird. Especially you. I don't know whether or not you're an exception, but you're really confusing."

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?" Stan grinned and turned his head towards the elf- and his smile quickly faded when he saw the latter take his shirt off.

"Accept it however you like. That's just my observation." Kyle turned around after a few seconds to see why Stan fell silent all of a sudden only to notice the latter staring at him with his face red and mouth agape. The elf raised an inquisitive brow and put on the new shirt before taking his robe to fold it and leave it next to the crown. "You better close your mouth before your jaw falls to the floor. And I think I asked you to turn around."

"Oh!" Stan exclaimed after he snapped out of it and lowered his gaze. "I... I'm sorry."

The elf sighed exasperatedly as he crossed his arm in front of his chest.

_Okay, he's not that confusing. He's outright dumb._

"I'm sorry _what_?"

"Uh... I'm sorry, Kyle?"

_Like really dumb._

"Oh- I mean, y-your highness." Stan corrected himself quickly. "I'm sorry about that too."

Kyle just rolled his eyes and walked over to the bed to lay down in the side next to the wall. He turned his back to the still embarrassed human and brought the blanket over himself.

Stan huffed out, frustrated at his own stupidity and after he finished changing, also laid down, but on the other edge of the bed.

"Um, I can't really sleep on that side of the-"

The elf turned his head to glare at Stan.

"What was that?"

And Stan was quick to apologize. Again.

"I-I'm sorry. It was nothing... Your highness."

"That's better." Kyle turned around towards him completely and closed his eyes, muttering under his breath, "But you're still slow."

"Wha-" Stan tried to protest, but the redhead cut him off again, so instead he just sulked like a little kid.

"We'll work on this tommorow. Good night."


	8. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **He looked back at the elf who rubbed the sleep off his eyes and couldn't help, but think that even that simple movement was graceful in itself - fitting for a prince and a future king.**

For the first time in those past six -almost seven- days, Stan realized the reality of his situation. And the fact that there was a real living and breathing elf sleeping next to him right now. Sure, of course he was an elf, Stan knew that from the moment he stepped on that battlefield along with Craig and Cartman with the intention of searching for food in the forest near the former castle of the elves which was now just ruins and dust, leaving behind little to no evidence of the existence of those peaceful creatures. But actually, peaceful could be an improper adjective for this one. He had quite the temper and put up a front of being hot and cold, but maybe that was his actual character? Maybe it was in his nature.

Stan's thoughts ran in a different direction while he looked at the redhead, carefully examining his features. The curly red unruly hair that was now splayed across almost the whole pillow; the long pointy ears; the smooth, but still a little sharp outlines of his pale face, adorned with light, almost invisible freckles; the long eyelashes that almost touched his cheekbones; the sharp defined collarbones which were now visible under the loose material of the shirt. Then he reminded himself of the wounds on Kyle's stomach and sides and thought of the smooth skin that he would have surely enjoyed touching if he wasn't so fixated on tending to the wounds and cleaning the blood around them.

_No, no, no. That's wrong. Very, very wrong._

_Even more so because he's an elf and I'm just an ordinary human._

_Furthermore, he's probably going to pursue his right and be a king, and he's sure to be a good one, judging by the way he talks, the way he carries himself... Sure, he's pretty explosive and still a bit on the weaker side, but that could be changed. We'll work on this together._

Even though they didn't know each other well, Stan felt the urge to protect Kyle and the others whatever it takes, no matter the cost. Because they were a family now. A small, constantly arguing and even fighting family, but still, family. Even though they were very different, they still looked out for each other. He remembered his sister being that way too - and judging by this, he thought that every family had at least one such sibling. Though in their case, there were now three of these siblings.

Stan plopped his head back down on the pillow, his mind unwillingly recalling the Big event -at least that's what they called it- that almost shattered them all, but brought them together so they could have people to lean on in those hard times. When the Dark lord let his rogues to do whatever they want, and they left behind corpses, ruins, orphans and burned down houses. Like they did with Stan's family, then Craig's and Butters'...

Then it was Cartman's turn who was on the verge of joining the Dark lord's army just because someone had told him that they were the good guys because they were humans and every non-human creature was an enemy. Hell, he was even convinced to kill his half-brother whose father turned out to be an elf - probably the first elf who dared to go and live amongst the humans. Though Cartman never really talked about this with the others - those facts were made known after Kenny's connection with him when he broke down a few years ago.

And Kenny... well, he was the most mysterious person among them. For being so open about his emotions and thoughts, he never talked about his reasons for joining the little group. He had only told them that he was banished from his land under unknown circumstances and... that was it. But they didn't push on the subject. And Kenny was like their parental figure who always took care of them, whether they were angry, sad or injured, the princess was always there.

Stan's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of shifting next to him, so he turned his head to look at the green eyes now staring at his.

"Why are you up? Is it morning already?" Kyle asked in a hushed whisper, probably not wanting to disturb the comfortable silence, broken only by the distant chirping of the early birds.

"Not really." Stan's eyes wandered to the open window to see that the sky was already lighting up by the slowly rising sun which gave it a pleasing navy blue hue. "There are still a few hours until dawn." He looked back at the elf who rubbed the sleep off his eyes and couldn't help, but think that even that simple movement was graceful in itself - fitting for a prince and a future king.

"So the stars must be still visible." Kyle pointed out, a small excited smile tugging on his lips. He stood up after stretching his arms and walked over to the window. He opened it wide enough to lean his body forward and over the windowsill. Luckily for him, the sky was clear tonight.

Stan raised up slowly, unsure of what to do. He didn't know if it was a good idea to go and watch the stars with the elf, but... it was worth a try, so he did just that and stood beside the redhead. The latter gave him a quick side-glance before going back to observing the little lights in the sky.

"You know," Kyle began after a few minutes of silence, "We used to do that back at home with my mother and my little brother. She taught us everything she knew about constellations and... I don't really know why I'm telling you this, but it just feels right. After all, we're kind of stuck together now, so..." He huffed out a quiet laugh, but it sounded more grief-stricken than anything.

Stan smiled slightly in response and fixated his gaze upwards so as to not make the other uncomfortable, but he still couldn't fight the urge to learn more about his life.

"What were they like?"

"Well... My mother used to get worked up by the smallest things, but... she was nurturing, kind and definitely deserved the title queen. And maybe she was a _little_ bit too obsessive of us, constantly thinking of new rules and not letting us go farther than the forest without supervision from nymphs. And my brother was just- that rebellious, but extremely smart, witty and creative child. He also had the tendency to sneak out and go on adventures in human villages. But if... _When_ we find him, don't tell him that I know about this."

When he finished, he looked back at the human who seemed to be in deep thought once again.

"What about your family?"

"I... I don't know, I don't remember much. Just that my sister was angry all the time and we bickered and fought a lot. And my parents were... okay, I guess."

"Oh. I see." The elf turned his gaze back to the stars above and straightened his back as his hands moved to rest on the windowsill.

The two of them stood like that for at least half an hour, judging by the noticeable lighter color of the sky. Neither dared to say or do anything. That was, until Stan let out a sigh slowly, then turned around to regard Kyle who seemed to be doing just the same, almost mirroring his actions. Both of them opened their mouths, then stopped upon seeing that that the other also wanted to say something.

"You go first." Stan finally muttered to break the awkward silence and smiled sheepishly.

"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for calling you dumb. I guess you're not _that_ dumb. I mean- you helped me a few times already and even saved my life, even though I still don't understand why." Kyle even replicated the rubbing of his neck that the human was doing right now, but didn't think much of it. Though he still moved his hand to his shoulder, just in case.

"Well that was... a really impulsive decision, really. We were just going to search for food, but we stumbled upon you and... Cartman and Craig weren't very thrilled by it, but I just really wanted to help. I know it sounds stupid, but it was like my heart was telling me to... you know, to do a good deed."

The redhead couldn't help, but huff slightly in amusement as he smiled and averted his gaze.

"So what did _you_ want to say?"

Stan followed his example, but soon steeled his nerves enough to look the elf in the eyes.

"I was going to ask you if you need, uh, you know... That thing with the... you know, the... the forehead touch because you looked very sad and... yeah."

Kyle shook his head at the flustered human and tried to stifle his laugh.

"You can do it if you want to." He closed his eyes and let out a soft sigh when he felt the warm hands on his cheeks before their foreheads touched. But Stan was still nervous and that was clearly evident in his trembling fingers, so Kyle decided to just enter autopilot mode and placed his own hands over his. "Calm down. That's the point of the whole thing, so you don't have to be so nervous... Unless you did something weird. Then I might consider killing you again... Though I'm sorry for that thing too."

Stan let out a shaky breath and fell silent. They stood like that for a while before he muttered, "I'm sorry, _what_?"

"I'm sorry, human." Kyle replied with a chuckle, then lowered his voice to a whisper. "I mean, Stan."

Said boy pulled back to look at the elf, though their hands remained glued to each other.

"I forgive you, so... friends?"

"Yeah. Friends."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that whole chapter is a mess that I wrote half-asleep, so sorry if some things are not really connected with others, my brain does this all the time ^^"


	9. Sparring session

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Well, he's not that bad... For a human.**

Stan woke up with a groan as he felt the pain in his neck and lower back. He looked around to find the cause of this, and there it was - the window was forgotten wide open because of the late night stargazing he and Kyle did. And speaking of Kyle, he was so tightly wrapped with the blanket that it had left Stan half-exposed to the cold morning air. Though Stan couldn't really stay mad at Kyle for long. Not with that peaceful face while he was sleeping. But he couldn't look at it for long either because of the weekly sparring session that was to happen today. So Stan sighed and placed a hand on Kyle's shoulder to shake him lightly.

"Kyle? Wake up. It's almost noon already." He spoke quietly, partly because his vocal chords still hasn't recovered from not being used for several hours and partly because he didn't want to startle the elf. "Come on, dude."

After a solid minute of fruitless trying to wake Kyle up, Stan finally received a quiet hum in response, along with a hand that flew up to his chest to push him back.

"Tell them to leave me alone. Im off-duty today."

Stan rolled his eyes and stood up, walking out of the room without another word. Though he came back after a while, carrying a bucket of water and a tray of food. The tray of food was left on the table and the bucket - next to the bed. In the meantime Kyle hadn't made an effort to get up. Instead now he was curled in on himself with his arms wrapped around Stan's pillow. Stan huffed out a quiet chuckle and carefully retrieved his pillow despite Kyle whining in protest because of the loss of warmth.

"Are you gonna get up yourself or should I drag you out of bed?"

Stan raised an inquisitive brow even if Kyle couldn't see him with his eyes closed. Though the only answer he got was a barely audible 'no', so Stan didn't hesitate to pull the blanket away and scoop up the elf to raise him in a sitting position. He huffed with the effort, but succeeded in holding Kyle with one hand on his back while he dipped his other hand in the water before dragging his palm across Kyle's face. At least this seemed to wake him up and Stan was met with the sharp nails digging in his shoulders once again along with a glare from the piercing green eyes that opened to look up at him.

"Do you humans wake each other up like that every time?" Kyle muttered grumpily and released Stan's shoulders upon realizing what he was doing until now. "I was going to get up myself."

"Yeah, well, there isn't time to wait for you. We're already late for training." Stan calmly explained and detached himself from Kyle to stand up. "And you said yourself that we're friends, so that gives me the right to piss you off in any way that I can."

"That's ridiculous." Kyle shook his head and bent down to wash his face himself, and possibly wash away the lingering feeling of Stan touching him. Not that he minded it that much. It was just... strange. He looked up after that to see Stan already getting dressed by putting on a clean shirt, as well as a cape over it and then some metal things on his wrists that made Kyle flinch. They looked just like the handcuffs that kept him from escaping on his first day here and drained his powers. Then why was Stan willingly putting them on? Didn't it hurt him too?

Stan must have noticed Kyle staring, so he looked up to him with a half-smile.

"What is it?"

Kyle nodded to his hands.

"Why are you putting these things on? And the cape... Doesn't it get in the way when you're fighting?"

"Not really. They just became a part of my attire. You know, like Craig's hat. They sort of have a sentimental meaning."

Kyle hummed in thought. So it was something like his crown that Ike made him a few years ago. But that didn't stop him from thinking that humans were strange. Even more so when Stan took a step closer to him to give him the tray of food after getting himself a piece of bread.

"Is that all you're going to eat?" Kyle inquired again after leaving the tray in his lap.

"Yeah. I'll eat some more after the training."

With that their conversation died down... until Kyle opened his mouth again after they finished eating.

"So how did you all come together?"

Stan leaned on the edge of the table and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Kyle took it as a sign that Stan didn't want to talk about it, and was just about to back down and retreat his question, but Stan spoke up.

"Craig, Butters and I were childhood friends. Cartman tagged along later on and after the first war Kenny came to us when we found this house as a hideaway. And then we found you."

Despite the brief explanation Kyle was still grateful for the information that Stan gave him. So he nodded and stood up, leaving the now empty tray back on the table. He didn't say anything more and instead occupied himself with dressing up. This time he didn't have to bother with telling Stan off as he squeezed his eyes shut to give Kyle his much needed privacy.

 _At least he's learning quick_ , Kyle thought and sneaked a glance to Stan's motionless form, unable to stop the smile that creeped on his face as he did so.

_Well, he's not that bad... For a human._

* * *

When Stan and Kyle went around the house, they were met by huffing and grunting as the others attacked makeshift dummies. There were flames and arrows flying around from Cartman and Kenny, and glinting of metal from Butters' sword and Craig's daggers. At least they weren't wasting time to sit around and wait for Stan and Kyle to arrive so they could start their training.

Stan whistled to get their attention and waved as a greeting.

"Oh, so you finally decided to lift your asses from the bed?" Cartman growled as he turned to regard the newcomers. "Can't say the absence of that elf wasn't nice though."

"Cartman!" Kenny shouted before Kyle could defend himself and whipped around to point a finger at the wizard as a warning. "I'll shove an arrow up your ass if you don't shut up!"

"Um, princess, that isn't a very nice thing for you to say." Butters joined in quietly. Kenny responded with a frustrated huff, so he continued, "Y-you know, because of your status as a royalty..."

"Psh, yeah, whatever." Cartman waved a hand and directed his attention to Stan. "So now that you're here, can we start fighting for real? I'm getting tired of these dummies who can't counterattack."

Stan cleared his throat and looked around his friends before declaring, "Okay, so... Craig and Butters will fight first because last week it was me and Cartman. Oh and Craig, try to not injure Butters like last time."

"For fuck's sake, Marsh- Would you stop bossing me around? I know what I have to do." Craig growled. He took a step back from the dummy he had been training on and put his daggers away in their sheaths on his belt.

"But you didn't mind me bossing you around two years ago-" Stan began, his brows furrowing in confusion.

Craig gritted his teeth and caught Stan by the elbow, dragging him a good few feet away from the unsuspecting Kyle, Kenny, Butters and Cartman, stomping as he did so.

"Listen here, Marsh. This thing, whatever it is that we had is over. I thought we wouldn't have to talk about it again, but here we are because of your stupid mouth moving before your brain knows it. You're really damn stupid sometimes, you know."

"Look, I'm sor-"

"I don't want to hear it! You don't have to apologize. Just try and stick to our agreement to not talk about this. Ever. You hear me? Read my lips - we don't talk about what happened, it was just a dumb one night stand that didn't mean anything then and doesn't mean anything now. Blink twice if you understand."

Stan gulped and did as he was instructed. It was strange, seeing the usually level-headed Craig lose his cool like that. Of course, Stan had seen him lose his cool before, but the circumstances were... completely different.

He vaguely remembered that night when Craig had woken up from yet another nightmare and went to Stan despite being the tough guy that was always facing his problems by himself. But at that time he wanted to have someone by his side, someone to assure him that everything was going to be alright, and someone to occupy his mind and body with in order to forget about that bad dream. It didn't end well as Stan had started developing some feelings for Craig aside from their friendship, but both of them realized that they were just confused and they weren't meant to be at all, so all of this was pretty short-lived. But that still didn't stop Stan from spouting nonsense in inappropriate times without even realizing it.

"I got it." Stan finally said after he snapped out of it. "I won't talk about it again. I give you my word."

"Good."

With that, Craig returned to their friends and Stan followed, stopping next to Kyle. The latter looked confused because of Stan and Craig's exchange, but he didn't try to ask about it. It was Stan's and Craig's personal lives after all, and he didn't want to barge in or delve deeper than he was intended to.

"Okay, are you guys finished with talking about your fucked up relationship? I wanna fight already!" Cartman complained from beside them. He received a glare from Stan and a middle finger from Craig, so he grinned, pleased that he succeeded yet again in pissing them off.

Though Craig dismissed him by walking in the middle of the wide circle that the others have made. Butters took it as a cue to do the same and waited for Craig to pull his daggers out again. It was a great mistake for Butters as he forgot about Craig's agility - he had attacked in the matter of seconds and Butters almost failed to block him. The first few minutes passed with Butters defending himself from Craig's fast swings at his throat, stomach, legs, arms - practically everywhere. Though after a few encouraging shouts from Kenny, Butters managed to gain the upper hand and start attacking Craig, successfully pushing him back against a tree and stabbing the point of his sword next to Craig's head. Craig congratulated his victory by flipping him off before raising his hands as a sign of defeat. Butters grinned and turned his head to look at Kenny, beaming with pride. That was yet another mistake. Craig used the moment of distraction to pounce on Butters and pin him to the ground with one of his daggers pointed at his throat. Undoubtedly, a win for Craig. Again.

"Oh fiddlesticks..." Butters whined and let his head fall down with a soft thump.

"You never, ever, turn away from the enemy, Stotch." Craig said as he stood up and offered a hand to help Butters up too. "Even if this is just training, you can't let your guard down."

Butters nodded and got up, then retreated to Kenny's side again. The latter wrapped him in a hug to comfort him with words like 'you'll get him next time' and 'you were great'.

"Who's next?" Stan asked and looked around, his gaze quickly stopping on Cartman who raised a hand impatiently. "Okay, then Cartman and-"

"Me." Kyle interrupted and took a step forward. Stan opened his mouth to say something else, but Kyle quickly cut him off again by raising a hand. "It's just sparring, right? We're not fighting for real. I'll just wipe that smug look off of Cartman's face real quick."

"Bring it on, elf boy!" Cartman taunted and cracked his knuckles.

As soon as he did that, everyone stepped back and away from Cartman and Kyle, and the battle began.


	10. Sparring session pt.2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Wha- You're going to fight each other?"**

Fire flew back and forth as Kyle and Cartman fought. Cartman was laughing like a maniac while unleashing his power towards Kyle. He wasn't holding back in the slightest bit, and he was sure that he would be exhausted by the end, but hell, was it worth it.

Though it would have been more enjoyable if Kyle was to snap, but much to Cartman's disappointment, he didn't. Instead he was swiftly dodging the fireballs and the ground that shook and opened up beneath his feet. He was waiting for Cartman to exhaust himself and grant Kyle the right moment to strike. Though Cartman didn't leave him much room for that. Figuratively and literally, as he raised his hands over his head and with that, the ground roared, forming into a tall wall in front of Kyle. The latter almost crashed into it on his way to get away from Cartman's range, but successfully dodged it in the last moment. He shot a quick glance to Cartman and sent a few fire arrows his way. Even if he wasn't using a bow, Kenny's help proved useful at this moment. Cartman jumped out of the way, avoiding all of the arrows except one that licked at his thigh, burning a part of his cloak and his skin on its way. He clicked his tongue as he saw the damage, then snapped his head up again to look for Kyle, but there was no sign of him.

Cartman let out a breathy chuckle and made his way around the trees, ignoring his friends telling him to stop the fight already. He wasn't going to back down that easily. Not until he at least injures that goddamned elf.

"Come out, _Kahl_! You can't hide forever. Besides, only cowards hide. Cowards like you!" Cartman shouted, then paused to take a deep breath as he looked around. That's when he saw something red behind a tree. His face split again with a wide grin. "There you are." But just when he was about to summon another fireball, something, or rather someone, jumped on his back and pinned him to the ground with a clawed hand on the back of his neck that held him in place. "God dammit..."

Cartman squirmed around and tried to escape, but Kyle was quick to bring his knees down to pin his opponent's arms down.

"Hey there. How do you like the taste of dirt?" Kyle mocked in between pants as he tried to even his breathing while Cartman grunted and cursed, his fingers clawing at the ground.

In the meantime, Stan went to look for them after almost three minutes of not hearing any explosions. The others were gathered next to the house to avoid Cartman's powers. That left Stan being either the most fearless or the craziest one to go after a raging wizard and an almost equally explosive elf. After he found them, he stopped next to a nearby tree, his eyebrows shooting up as he saw that Kyle, despite being smaller and definitely lighter than Cartman, had succeeded in holding the latter down. And he was even using Stan's way of restraint with the knees. That was...

"Impressive." Stan noted and took a few cautious steps forward to extend a hand to Kyle. "Good job! That goes to you too, Cartman."

Cartman just groaned in response. Kyle accepted the help as he stood up, though he was extra careful to not touch Stan's metal bracelets. Thankfully, they released each other quickly in favor of offering help to Cartman too. Though Cartman got up himself and looked at Kyle with a sour expression.

"Don't play all innocent." Then he moved his gaze to Stan, scowling. "And you better see how fierce this creature is. It can turn on you if you present it an opportunity."

" _He_ is not some rabid animal and maybe _you_ should get to know him first before speaking like that!" Stan shot back. He knew very well that each of his friends could defend themselves from Cartman just fine, but when it came to Kyle, well... Even he himself couldn't explain why he wanted to protect him so much.

"Stan- It's okay, really." Kyle said quietly before turning back to Cartman. "I completely understand why you don't want to trust me, but I'm trying-"

"Screw you guys." Cartman retorted and after dusting his cloak off, he walked away to join the others.

Stan watched him go, a sigh of relief escaping his lips as his tense shoulders relaxed. He turned to face Kyle and just now realized that he was standing in front of him, as if to protect him better from Cartman.

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"

"What on earth was that for?" Kyle asked, his brows furrowing in confusion as Stan looked him up and down, searching for any bruises, cuts or burns. "You saw I could handle him myself."

"I... Of course I know that!" Stan retaliated and took a step back. "I was just worried."

"Why? You don't think that I'm strong or smart enough?" Kyle rolled his eyes and walked around Stan with his chin raised. Maybe his attitude would come away as cocky, but he didn't really care. For now the important thing was to show Stan that he was indeed strong enough, so despite the exhaustion from running around, he shot a look over his shoulder to Stan and added, "Maybe I should fight you next?"

"But- Wait. You're serious?"

"I wouldn't ask you if I wasn't serious."

They stopped upon reaching the others who were currently listening to Cartman talk about how close he was to defeating 'that sneaky elf'. Kenny shot up quickly to regard Stan. He looked hopeful that he would be saved from Cartman's showing off, but Stan nodded in Kyle’s direction.

"Wha- You're going to fight each other?" Kenny exclaimed and with that Butters and Craig also turned their attention to Stan and Kyle. "Kyle, you'll overwork yourself again!"

"Don't worry about it. I'm perfectly fine." Kyle assured and stood a few feet away from Stan. He rolled his shoulders and gave a small smile to the still hesitant Stan. "That is, if Stan holds back which will be pretty bad for him because I won't be doing the same."

At last, Stan gave in and huffed in response. Butters took Stan's sword that was left laying on the ground and threw it over to its owner who caught it with ease, but after a second thought tucked it in its scabbard. Kyle shot him a confused look, but Stan looked completely confident in his actions. It was pretty bold of him to get rid of the metal that was an essential when fighting with magic users. Especially elves.

"So I take it you're underestimating me again?" Kyle asked, his confusion being replaced with amusement. "That's not a very good idea."

"More like _you're_ underestimating _me_." Stan replied, and was greeted by a flaming arrow landing between his feet as a warning.

"Oh geez... I can't look." Butters muttered and covered his face with his hands. Kenny laughed from beside him and Cartman and Craig rolled their eyes.

Kyle just grinned at Stan's bewilderment and took a step back when Stan approached him, slowly at first, then breaking into a run while dodging the flames that Kyle sent his way. So hand-to-hand combat it is, Kyle figured upon seeing that Stan was about to throw a punch. Kyle cursed mentally his inability to fight like that, but at least he had fast reflexes. So he ducked out of the way and turned to kick Stan's shin, but his leg was stopped midway.

"What the-" Kyle started and looked down to see Stan gripping his ankle, then pulling it all of a sudden as he stepped out of the way when Kyle's back came in contact with the ground.

Now was Stan's turn to grin at Kyle who groaned and tried to stand up, but was stopped once again, this time by Stan's foot pressing on his chest.

"I thought you weren't gonna hold back." Stan pointed out, "But here you are."

Kyle growled in response and, with a flick of his wrist, shot a few fire arrows that went through Stan's cape with such force that he stumbled and fell back. Kyle directed the arrows to pin in the ground and hold Stan there. Though by the time Kyle stood up and summoned a fireball to throw at Stan, the latter had taken the cape off and rolled out of the way. Kyle growled again and walked over to Stan who was just pushing himself up, but, just like Butters, he forgot the golden rule about not turning your back to the enemy. Kyle used it to his advantage and reached out to take Stan's sword(which luckily had a wooden handle). He took another step closer and lifted his arm to press the edge of the blade to Stan's throat.

"That's not how you use a sword." Stan simply said. Before Kyle could register it, he caught Kyle’s wrist and elbowed his side with his free arm before retrieving his sword and turning around to point it at Kyle who doubled over. "You know, it could work if it was a shorter blade, not a long one like this."

Kyle looked up at him, frowning and flinching away from the sword. For some reason, even if they both said that they wouldn't hold back, they did just the opposite thing. It wasn't that strange for Stan who didn't want to hurt Kyle, but for Kyle... He still didn't know why he was so hesitant in his attacks. It wasn't like him at all.

"At least I tried." Kyle muttered under his breath as he stood upright. He didn't want to admit his loss and it looked like Stan didn't want that either.

"So it's a draw then." Stan announced, put his sword back in its place and extended a hand to Kyle. The latter replied with an eye-roll, but shook his hand and squeezed it, refusing to release it even after Stan tried to pull it back.

"I want a rematch. But not now. Now, I want you to teach me your ways of fighting. I can't use magic all the time after all."

Only after that did Kyle retreat his hand. They didn't even realize that Kenny, Butters, Craig and Cartman had already gone in the house for lunch. But nevertheless, Stan agreed and the rest of day passed with him teaching Kyle everything he knew.

* * *

"That was fun and all, but... I'm dying." Kyle muttered, declaring the end of the training.

The sun had already set, making way for the moon and the stars to come in sight. In fact, it had set hours ago, but Stan and Kyle remained outside. Food and rest be damned. Though Kyle still couldn't resist to lay down on the ground and close his eyes.

"What?!" Stan almost shouted and kneeled next to Kyle. He didn't even have the time to think, and his hands flew up to cup the elf's jaw. "Don't die! Please-"

"I mean figuratively, stupid." Kyle replied as he opened his eyes to regard Stan with a bored look. "It takes more than a little physical activity to take me out. And why are you freaking out like that?"

"Because, uh... I don't know. I just don't wanna see you on the verge of dying again." Stan explained, his voice lowering as if he was unsure of his words. Thankfully, it seemed that Kyle understood him as he raised his hands to stop them on Stan's forearms. "Um-"

"Thank you for caring about me even if I tried to kill you. I appreciate it." Kyle accompanied his words with a soft smile. He retreated his hands, letting them fall back next to his sides. "And uh... Not that I mind it, but your hands are still..."

Stan's eyes shot wide open as he realized what he was doing and pulled back quickly.

"I'm sorry... -Wait. You don't mind it?" Now his embarrassment was replaced by surprise as he lowered his body to sit down.

That seemed to take Kyle aback, but he quickly covered it up by saying, "Because of the forehead contact... touching... whatever you humans call it. But that thing just now was sort of different."

Stan opened and closed his mouth again. Something churned in his stomach and it felt like his heart skipped a beat.

Oh hell no.

He wasn't falling for Kyle, was he?

"What is it?" Kyle asked after seeing Stan fall silent. He sat up, his face contorting with worry as he scooted closer to lean his forehead on Stan's. Just like last time, he could feel that vague connection to Stan's emotions, but right now, there was something aside from nervousness that Kyle couldn't explain as there was also a wall that prevented him from figuring Stan out. It was much easier with his mother and brother - they were always open about their feelings and emotions. But this human was an outright mystery. As if he was... fighting with his own feelings? That didn't even make sense. Why would one want to suppress their feelings?

Stan gulped as he watched Kyle get closer, and froze despite the relaxing touch. It was hard to hold back for a person like himself that got attached too fast. And even if he was trying to stop it...

He was definitely falling. Hard.


	11. Nymph things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Thank me later for putting you together in a room."**

"Are you guys going to come back soon? Craig is already finished with the dinner." Kenny shouted, his head poking out around the corner of the house. Upon seeing the situation his friends were in, he grinned and added, "Sorry for breaking your moment."

Stan thanked Kenny mentally as he pulled away from Kyle and stood up. Of course he wanted the moment to continue, but... if it did, then he wouldn't be able to hold back for real and do something reckless. Just like he did with Craig two years ago, and it ended up creating a rift between them. He didn't want the same to happen with Kyle, so he just walked over to Kenny, picking up his cape on the way. Kyle reluctantly followed and acknowledged Kenny with a smile, though he still couldn't help, but wonder what was going on in Stan's head right now. Perhaps Kyle did something that he shouldn't have done?

"Hey, Kenny, can you help me with this?" Stan asked as soon as he reached Kenny and handed the cape to him. The holes from the arrows weren't that big, but still Kenny's sewing skills had to be tested yet again. Not that he really had anything to occupy himself with. Aside from training his archery skills and being with Butters, that is. So Kenny nodded in response and the two of them made their way to the front door.

Kyle stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening in shock. Not because of Stan calling the princess by name, but because of the realization of why he had such a drastic mood change.

Of course. That has to be it.

"Can I talk to you for a bit? I promise I won't bother you much." Kyle lowered his voice as he caught up with Kenny and placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. Stan had proceeded to walk away from them, so it was safe for Kyle to continue, "I just need an advice for something."

Kenny stopped too and turned to Kyle after telling Stan to go ahead.

"What is it?"

"I... I wanted to ask you about Stan actually." Kyle admitted, his voice falling to a whisper despite Stan already being too far from them to hear.

"Mmhm... What about him?" Kenny asked, a smile tugging on his lips again. "You realized his potential for being the perfect partner for you?"

Kyle furrowed his brows in confusion. He didn't want to answer that double-meaning question, so he shook his head.

"Is he like that with you too? Can you feel his emotions when you make a connection?"

Kenny hummed in thought and folded the cape in his hands to occupy himself with something while searching for an answer.

"He usually shows his emotions easily unlike Craig and Cartman. But- why? Didn't he show them just now?" Kyle shook his head again. Kenny hummed again, his smile widening as he sing-songed, "Then he's got something to hide. Which doesn't necessarily mean bad. It can be something good too, something like... love at first sight probably? Who knows?"

With that, Kenny turned on his heel, continuing on his way towards the front door of the house.

That didn't help Kyle at all. What did he mean, 'love at first sight'? There is no such thing. Right? Stan was just... He just showed affection to his friends differently. Though he wasn't acting this way toward Kenny, Butters, Craig and Cartman. Or maybe he did, but Kyle didn't see it? Yeah, that was probably it.

* * *

Kyle stood in front of the window, watching the stars and waiting for Stan to fall asleep, but so far, it wasn't working. The latter was still shifting restlessly under the blanket, huffing as he opened and closed his eyes after every unsuccessful attempt of trying to sleep.

"Are you gonna come soon? It's getting cold."

Kyle sighed. So he couldn't escape from apologizing after all. He closed the window and walked over to the bed to lay down between Stan and the wall. A few moments of awkward silence followed, the only sound coming from the rustling of fabric when Stan lifted the blanket to tuck Kyle in.

"I'm sorry for damaging it." Kyle finally spoke up. Strangely enough, his ego didn't get much damage from saying 'sorry' unlike other times. That was definitely a new experience.

Stan was just about to close his eyes again, but snapped them open upon hearing Kyle's words, his face contorting in confusion.

"Huh?"

"The cape. It's what you're so frustrated about, isn't it?"

Kyle turned on his side to face Stan and brought a hand up to rest it under his cheek. Stan just stared at him silently as he searched for an answer. 

"It's, uh... it's not a problem. Kenny will repair it. But what makes you think that I'm frustrated about it?"

"Well you said it's sentimental."

"Sure, but... It's really not a big deal."

"Then what's wrong?"

"I don't get what you mean...? I'm perfectly fine."

"I can see that you're not. Something's troubling you." Kyle said, his voice lowering to a soothing tone as he added, "Of course, I won't push you further if you don't want to talk about it."

He carefully examined Stan's every movement to try and read his body language. Though nothing much came out of it. His chest was heaving ever so slightly with every breath he took; his face, contoured by the moonlight, was calm, peaceful, except the slight tugging of his lips and the trembling of his eyes when he focused his attention to the ceiling. Kyle's gaze trailed to his arms, one of which was tucked under Stan's head while the other rested on his stomach. No visible sign of worry whatsoever, yet Kyle navigated his free hand on Stan's chest, right above his heart. His heartbeat was normal, but it quickened its pace as soon as Stan turned his head to look at Kyle.

"What are you doing?" Stan asked quietly, his voice almost falling to a whisper.

Kyle didn't answer. Instead his half-lidded eyes glinted with pure curiosity as he slid his hand up to Stan's bare shoulder, then across his collarbone. His touch was tender, carefully calculated so as to not let his nails graze the soft skin in the slightest bit, and Stan couldn't stop the shaky breath that parted his lips. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel this way, but he was too tired to try and stop Kyle. And he looked so concentrated, so confident in his actions that it made Stan's heart skip a beat again.

"If you want me to stop, just say so." Kyle muttered after a while, his hand coming to a stop on Stan's chest again. Much like Stan, he didn't know what he was doing either. But whether what he was doing was right or wrong, Kyle didn't care. He simply felt the need to unravel that mystery known as Stan 

"I..." Stan started, but found his voice caught in his throat as he locked eyes with Kyle. He just shook his head slightly as an answer and let the elf proceed with his exploring, even if he felt that his heart was going to burst any moment now. Even more so when Kyle slipped his hand under the blanket and ever so slowly dragged Stan's shirt up to feel more of the warm skin. His fingers brushed across lithe muscles that contracted under his touch, the much smoother parts of the skin there indicating the places of old scars.

"Fascinating." Kyle breathed out in a hushed whisper. He looked back up at Stan's face, at his lips in particular. "Are your lips that soft too?"

Stan gulped. A part of him was surprised of that question, but another part was happy that he wasn't the only one with such desires. So instead of an answer he raised his hand to place it on the back of Kyle's head. The only thing that filled his mind when his fingers entangled in the other's hair was - amazing. But definitely less amazing than the feeling when Kyle pushed up to get closer and press a light kiss to Stan's lips. It was... otherworldly.

This time Stan didn't hold his feelings back, Kyle noted as he pressed even closer to him, eager to get the most of that connection they just made. He released a shaky breath as soon as they broke away from the kiss, and lifted his body only to press it back down as his knees came to rest on Stan's sides. They locked gazes again, and this time Kyle didn't hesitate to cup Stan's jaw and lean in for another kiss. The latter seemed to relax more and more and his hands drifted up and down across Kyle's body until finally settling on dragging his shirt up to get rid of it, and to finally have a chance to feel the silky smooth skin underneath.

Contrary to his expectations, Kyle gave him a permission and raised his body just enough to let Stan remove the bothersome fabric and let it fall to the floor. Kyle looked down at Stan who sat up to get his own shirt off, then wrap his arms around Kyle, hands stopping at his back as he leaned forward to graze his lips across every spot available on the elf's skin. Kyle let out a low hum in approval and, as his hands found their way on Stan's head, he couldn't help, but ask himself what could possibly be the reason for him to be so enchanted by a human.

Maybe it was the thrill of it? Or the fact that this human was completely different from the others? He was careful and gentle when he rescued Kyle, when he visited him for the first time in that room, when he patiently taught him everything he knew earlier today. And of course, when he defended him from Cartman. And then there were Kenny's words... Maybe Stan was indeed the perfect partner? But that didn't mean that he and Kyle were soulmates... Right?

Kyle pushed this all aside and just relaxed under the loving touches, kisses and light bites of the boy beneath him. Until Stan raised his body to push Kyle back and down towards the bed as their lips found each other again for a breathless kiss. Now Stan, with newly gained confidence, took the lead and slid his hands down and towards the hem of Kyle's pants, though he couldn't stop himself from pressing their bodies once more, to feel the radiating heat that enveloped them.

That was, until Kenny's voice interrupted them.

"Guys, are you awake?"

Stan and Kyle immediately detached from each other to look at the door. Then they shot a worried look to each other.

"He'll go away if we keep quiet." Stan whispered and gulped to water his dry mouth as his body froze, as if he would give away their position if he were to move. Kyle just nodded and also stopped in his tracks, his hands clutching Stan's shoulders yet again as he tried to even his breathing and listen for any movement on the other side of the door.

"Stan, I can hear you. The doors are thin as hell if you haven't realized it for five years." Kenny spoke up again, sounding bored. "Can I come in?"

"No!" Stan exclaimed immediately as he stood up, "I mean- Just wait a second!" He gave a quick glance to Kyle who sat up, and wrapped him with the blanket before going over to the door hurriedly. He opened it just a little and smiled at Kenny as if nothing had happened. Though his red face and the absence of his shirt gave out pretty much everything.

And much to his embarassment, Kenny didn't fail to point it out by saying, "Well, you two sure move fast."

"I... don't know what you're talking about." Stan retorted. "We were just sleeping."

"Yeah, sure. Because people are so sweaty and panting when they wake up." Kenny laughed at his own statement and pushed Stan's cape, now fully repaired, in his hands. He used the moment of Stan's bewilderment to take a peek into the room and wave to the still dazed Kyle. "Hey there! How are you in this wonderful, majestic night?"

Kyle quirked a brow in confusion while Stan pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand.

"Kenny, please!" Both of them exclaimed, followed by Kenny's giggling.

"Thank me later for putting you together in a room." Kenny said and took a step back after giving a pat to Stan's shoulder. "Bye now, have fun!"

With that, Kenny disappeared down the hall with a skip in his step and humming cheerfully. Stan closed the door and after locking it, he pressed his forehead against it.

Kyle was equally irritated, but after a few seconds of silence he huffed out a chuckle and shook his head.

"Just nymph things again..."


	12. A new ally

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"I came to give you all of the information that I have about the castle. And the whereabouts of your brother of course."**

Kyle awoke with the first rays of the sun when it poked out and over the horizon. He hasn't slept that well in... how long? Twenty years? Or probably more. But that didn't really matter now because he felt amazing. Perfect even. He stretched his arms- or at least tried to, but there was something in his way. He snapped his eyes open.

There was Stan, still sleeping peacefully with his arms protectively wrapped around him. Though Kyle was more than surprised when he saw their clothes everywhere, but not on them. He was shocked, confused, stunned, stupefied.

_Dear Mother Nature, creator of everything pure and holy-_

_What on earth?! Wasn't that just a dream?_

As much as Kyle wanted to reject the ~~fact~~ possibility of him and Stan being intimate, it was real. And the slight pain in the lower half of his body when he tried to move away confirmed that.

He lifted Stan's left arm(boy, was it heavy) and bit his lip as he let it fall slowly on the bed.

_Don't wake up, don't wake up!_

Stan hummed quietly in his sleep. Thankfully, he didn't wake up, so Kyle sighed in relief and moved back towards the wall. The realization that came next was that he was also too close to the wall, so that didn't leave him much room for movement. He turned on his stomach and pushed himself up while refraining himself from looking down at Stan and covering him with the blanket quickly. As soon as he did that, he crawled off the bed quickly and retrieved his clothes, putting them on as fast as possible.

_Got to get away..._

_Right._

Kenny had to be awake by now, Kyle guessed, and walked to the door, though he couldn't stop himself from taking a look at Stan, particularly at his back and shoulders which were covered with long red claw marks. For some reason, Kyle felt weirdly proud about that, probably because both him and Stan lived up to their promises of not holding back... even if it wasn't exactly in a battle. Kyle cleared his throat and straightened his back before going out of the room and closing the door quietly. He looked around the still dark hallway and blinked a few times to help his eyes get adjusted to the darkness. He could hear soft snoring and calm breathing from all rooms but one, so he figured it was Kenny's.

However, when he knocked on the door there was no answer. He knocked again; still nothing. But then he heard Kenny's voice, muttering Butters' name. And it came from said boy's room, so Kyle just gave up and decided it would be a better idea to go outside and probably play with some animals, walk around, maybe train his skills a bit?

But of course, something had to ruin his plans again.

He narrowed his eyes as he scanned the area. He was sure he felt something or someone approaching. Whoever it was, they were still far away, so Kyle had time to walk away at a safe distance from the house in order to lead whoever it was away. He looked back and sure enough, the house was nowhere in sight. Now he focused on the sound that approached him. Thankfully, it wasn't horse-trotting or more than two people approaching. In fact, it was only one person. As they got closer and closer, Kyle distinguished the boots that the Dark lord's soldiers wore. But why did he send only one person? Was it a scout?

Nevertheless, Kyle didn't want to risk it, so he hid behind a tree and waited for the person to approach.

Finally, a rather young-looking boy approached the tree where Kyle stood, but he didn't seem to notice him, so he just continued on his way. Sure enough, he was one of the Dark lord's warriors. Kyle took notice of the metal plates around the boy's torso and elbows. He had some weak spots, so Kyle made use of them by running after the boy and pouncing on him, pinning him to the ground like he did with Cartman yesterday, and thanks to Stan's help, he could maneuver more easily now.

"Name and purpose." Kyle demanded, his voice lowering to a growl.

But much to his surprise, the stranger laid there with no sign of wanting to fight Kyle off whatsoever.

"Firkle Smith." The boy replied monotonously, "And you must be prince Kyle. Can't say it's that nice to meet you in that position, Your highness. Also I would appreciate it if you let me go, but I guess I can say what I gotta say like this too. But then again, I need to see your leader. I'm not saying that you're incapable of leading; on the contrary, I think you'd be a way better king than Clyde, but there's another person here who's in charge."

Kyle narrowed his eyes as he tried to keep in track with all the things Firkle said.

"And why should I trust you?"

"Because Ike told me to seek you. I can't say it was hard, given that the Dark lord already knows your whereabouts, but I really should have gotten a horse. My existence was already miserable and now that I walked all the way here, I really wanna die. But then Ike would be sad, so I'm thoroughly fucked to say the least."

"What?" Kyle exclaimed, then huffed out a chuckle. "And why would Ike be sad about a human dying?

Firkle sighed and turned his head to the side to try and get a look at Kyle as he said calmly, "We're soulmates. Whether you like it or not."

"That's impossible."

"Just see for yourself if you don't believe me."

Kyle froze as he slowly pulled his hand away from the nape of the boy's neck. His eyes widened in shock when he saw the mark. It didn't look like anything in particular, just a red formless blob like a birthmark of sorts. But Kyle recognized it as the mark of elves' soulmates. He even tried to wipe it away, thinking it was just colored so that it could trick Kyle, but it stayed there stubbornly, proving Kyle otherwise.

"No way..." Kyle mumbled and slowly got off Firkle's back to stand up.

What if Stan had the same mark and Kyle just couldn't see it because of the scratches...?

No, he couldn't be thinking about Stan now. Especially when he could get information for his brother from that boy... Ike's soulmate. That sounded ridiculous, but it looked like it was true.

Firkle stood up too and dusted off his clothes.

"Now will you take me to your leader? I have some things to discuss with him."

Kyle steeled himself as soon as he looked at Firkle. He nodded firmly and waved his hand, motioning him to take the lead.

"If I see you do or say anything wrong, I won't hesitate to hurt you. I don't care that you're my brother's soulmate."

"Don't worry about that, Your highness. I want to help him as much as you do."

So, another stubborn human. But aside from that, even if he came away as nonchalant, he looked sincere. There was a determined flame burning in his eyes... much like Stan.

Kyle pushed the thought away and cleared his head from anything, but thoughts about his brother.

When they reached the house, Kyle stopped to think whether it was a good idea to let Firkle in or not. Thankfully, Firkle answered his unspoken question by waving his hand dismissively and leaning on the wall next to the door. Kyle hurried to go up the stairs and in Stan's room. He completely forgot about checking for marks in favor of shaking Stan's shoulder.

"Stan! Wake up!"

Stan groaned and turned on his back with his eyes still closed. He reached out to Kyle, catching him by the shoulders and dragging him down for a hug.

"Let's sleep a bit more, my king... It's too early."

"There isn't time for that!" Kyle frowned and pulled away, shaking Stan again and completely dismissing the way Stan called him. "Just get up! It's urgent!"

"It's urgent?" Stan repeated, startled, his eyes opening as he shot up in a sitting position. "What happened? Someone attacking us?"

"No. There is a boy, a soldier of the Dark lord. Firkle Smith. He wants to speak with you." Kyle explained, calmly this time, and took Stan's clothes from the floor, then dropped them in his lap. "Get dressed and come down. Hurry up."

Stan nodded, his eyebrows knitting in confusion, but he got dressed and followed Kyle quickly. Much to Kyle's surprise, Firkle was still standing there, waiting for Stan. There was also no sign of other soldiers approaching.

"Do you have any maps here?" Firkle asked instead of greeting Stan. "Actually I can draw one-"

"What? Why are you here?" Stan cut him off, his hand moving to grip the handle of the sword on his belt, just in case.

"I came to give you all of the information that I have about the castle." Firkle looked over at Kyle and added, "And the whereabouts of your brother of course."

Stan also turned his attention to Kyle who stood next to him, his face devoid of any emotions. Stan pulled him to the side and leaned in, his voice falling to a whisper.

"Can we trust him?"

"He doesn't look like he's lying. And he's Ike's soulmate. I saw the mark and it isn't drawn on him, I didn't feel any magic either which means it's real." Kyle whispered back, "He could be of great help, so I suggest you hear him out."

Stan pressed his lips in a tight line and nodded after a second. After giving a short order of 'don't let your guard down', he turned back to Firkle and motioned him to follow as he walked in the house and headed to the basement. Firkle followed him with Kyle trailing close behind him to assure that he doesn't do anything reckless. When they went in the basement, Stan gave Firkle a sheet of paper and a pen, then stepped back as Firkle bent over the table to draw a detailed map of the castle and its dungeons. He put an X mark on a place in one of the dungeons, then another one above it, on what it seemed to be a room in the second floor.

"Ike was kept here," Firkle started and pointed to the first X mark, then moved his finger to the second. "But I asked them to move him in my room, which is here, because he could die in those dark dungeons with no food and water. It was pretty hard to convince the right hand of the Dark lord that I would be able to look over Ike better this way, but of course, the Dark lord wants prince Kyle, and if his brother is dead, he won't come. So in short, now I keep watch over Ike, so he's fine."

Kyle and Stan exchanged a look. Kyle was the first one to speak up.

"How do they know that I'm alive? And if Ike is with you, why didn't you help him escape and come here with him?"

"I would be rotting under the ground if I tried to do so. And I don't mean the dungeons." Firkle curled his upper lip in disgust as he said that, then turned to face Kyle and proceeded, "Also, the Dark lord has scouts everywhere, so he knows that you're here. His initial plan was to let me and the other guards have entertainment until Ike dies, but when he found out that you're alive, he decided to let Ike live too and use him as bait for you. And now I convinced him that I'm coming to give you false information to lead you all in his trap, but I really need your help to get Ike out of there and escape myself."

"How do we know you're not lying to us now?" Stan joined in. Firkle noticed that his hand was moving to grasp his sword again, so he shook his head.

"You don't. You just have to trust me."


	13. Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"There's a mark on me too, right...?"**

"So let me get this straight - you're Kyle's brother's soulmate."

"Yes."

"And you're one of the Dark lord's soldiers."

"Yes."

"And he sent you here to give us false information, but instead you want to tell us the truth."

"That's right."

"That doesn't make sense. We're your enemy!"

"You're the Dark lord's enemy. Not mine."

Stan pinched the bridge of his nose and started pacing around the room for the thousandth time these past ten minutes. He still couldn't wrap his head around the whole deal with Firkle wanting to help them. However he looked at it, it didn't make sense, even if Firkle was open about everything until now and didn't miss a beat when he answered Stan's questions. And to top it off, it seemed that he was Ike's soulmate. But that didn't mean he wasn't actually on the Dark lord's side and expertly lying to get Stan and Kyle to trust him in order to lead them and the others in a trap.

Stan stopped in his tracks to look at Kyle who was currently sitting on a chair next to the table, nibbling on the knuckles of his clenched fist and staring at the ground as if some answer would magically appear there. Stan sighed and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Could you go wake Kenny and Craig up? Tell them to come here."

Kyle looked up to him, gave him a curt nod and stood up to make his way out of the basement. Firkle sighed and leaned on the table, crossing his arms in front of his chest and tapping his elbow. He looked around the room before stopping to look at Stan again.

"You two have a thing going on too, don't you?"

Stan froze and looked back at Firkle, immediately frowning and copying his position as if to protect himself from the boy exposing him, though it looked like he already did. Not that Stan would confirm that.

"How does that get in your business?"

"It doesn't. But it gets in Ike's business. I need to update him on what his brother is doing when I go back. And when he's worried, I'm worried too. You understand me, right?"

Stan didn't want to answer. Instead he pushed the thoughts about Kyle aside and kept staring intently at Firkle to try and read his neutral expression. Firkle stared back, but averted his gaze after a while and shook his head.

"Love is a dumb thing." Firkle spoke up again, his expression softening a bit. Stan almost groaned, but held back in order to hear what the boy wanted to say. "I don't know who came up with it, but it's... strange. Like, it makes you weak and strong at the same time. Weak because you're always afraid that the person you love could get hurt, especially in times like these, and strong because you want to protect that person. Am I right?"

Stan sighed, but cleared his throat quickly after. He didn't want to let Firkle in on his feelings, but there he went, exposing him in less than a minute. Was he that obvious? That was really problematic. But at least now he knew, from the way Firkle spoke, that he was sincere. Still, he needed to wait for Kenny to tell for sure if the boy was telling the truth about everything. After all, you could be a lovesick idiot, but betray the person you love at the same time. Stan expected that from the people who worked for the Dark lord.

Soon enough, Kyle returned with Kenny and Craig trailing behind him. Stan couldn't help, but admire the way Kyle descended down the stairs gracefully with his back straightened, chin raised, face relaxed, but stern, and of course, carrying an air of confidence, pride and power. Despite the situation they were in right now, Stan's knees gave in with his urge to bow down to the future ruler, to _his_ king. And he would surely do that, if not for Craig's voice that brought him back to reality.

"Who's that guy and what is he doing here?"

Stan blinked a few times, reluctantly moving his gaze from Kyle to Craig.

"He's- He, uh... He wants to help us."

"It also turned out that he's my brother's soulmate." Kyle added.

Craig quirked a brow in confusion while Kenny exclaimed an 'oh'.

"Is he now?" Kenny walked around Firkle to take a look at the nape of his neck. Firkle obediently bowed his head to show the mark. When Kenny saw it, he took a step back, his lips stretching in a smile. "Okay, let's see now... You want me to tell you if he's to be trusted, correct?"

Kenny regarded Stan who nodded, so he directed his attention back to Firkle and caught his hands. Craig moved a hand to his belt, knowing why he was also brought here with Kenny. Stan and Kyle stood motionless to see what happens. Firkle seemed to relax under Kenny's comforting aura until Kenny pulled back after a while, and his shoulders tensed again.

"Well, aren't you a complicated person." Kenny noted with a quiet chuckle. He clasped his hands behind his back and swirled around to face the others. "He's completely devoted to Kyle's brother and wants to take revenge on the Dark lord. He's on our side. So, Craig, you can relax now. He has good intentions."

Craig nodded and let his hands fall to his sides, but his face remained stern. Kyle and Stan sighed in relief upon hearing Kenny's conclusion, and Firkle turned to take the paper with the map. He walked over to the drawings on the wall and held his in the air for everyone to see and compare.

"So, as I was meaning to say, you've got the map wrong. Well, not completely, but these exits here that you probably think are real, are fake. Two of them are dead-ends which end with traps and the other leads directly to the dungeons." Firkle corrected the map on the wall as he spoke, then turned around again to face the others. "Except these three secret exits, there's one more, but I don't know where it is. Though I assume it's leading right to the Dark lord's room. I'll be sure to look around to find it, then come back here to tell you."

"What about the guards? And the rest of his warriors?" Stan finally spoke up.

"Oh, they're everywhere." Firkle huffed in amusement at everyone's displeased groans. "Don't worry, a friend of mine already took care of this by poisoning their food. Most of them will be dead by next week. She made sure that everything looks like an accident. But the important question is... do you have an army?"

Stan and Craig exchanged a glance. The corner of Craig's lips even twitched up in a smirk and he turned to leave after receiving a nod from Stan. Kenny seemed like he also understood what Craig was about to do while Kyle looked at Stan, raising an inquisitive brow.

"Where is he going?"

"To the Barbarians' wasteland to inform them about this." Stan replied to which Firkle gasped in surprise.

"I should have figured that you would ask them for help. I'm impressed." Firkle accompanied that by clapping a few times, then walked back to the table and left his map there. "Then, have you decided when you're going to attack?"

"As soon as possible, but..." Stan trailed off and moved his gaze to Kyle who blinked a few times upon realizing that except Stan, Firkle and Kenny also had their eyes glued on him. Stan couldn't stop the smile tugging on his lips when he continued with, "Your _majesty_? We await your orders."

"My... My orders?" Kyle repeated slowly, his eyes widening at the realization that Stan just called him 'majesty' instead of 'highness'. He looked at Kenny who smiled reassuringly at him, then back to Stan. Kyle thought over it, then cleared his throat, steeled his nerves and tone. "Two weeks will be enough for the preparations." He directed his attention to Firkle. "Until then, I believe you can come up with something to distract the Dark lord with."

"I'll tell him that you're attacking in three weeks so you can catch him unprepared. I've thought about this too." Firkle glanced at the door, then back to Kyle. "I think I need to leave already, so... is there something you want to say to Ike?"

"Just tell him to stay strong and wait for me." Kyle's expression softened a bit at that, but at his next words it hardened again, almost frowning. "And you be sure to take care of him."

Firkle nodded, even managed to flash a quick small smile at everyone before taking his leave.

"I'll go tell Leo and Cartman the news." Kenny spoke up immediately after Firkle left.

With that, Kenny also walked out of the basement. Kyle watched him go, then placed a hand over his heart, exhaling a slow shaky breath to calm himself. He almost forgot about Stan until he made his presence known by clearing his throat. Kyle shot up to look at him. There were a few moments of silence before Kyle remembered about the mark on Firkle's neck.

"Can you let me see something?"

Stan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but nodded and followed Kyle's movements as he walked behind him and pulled his collar down.

"What? Is there supposed to be anything there?" Stan asked, but Kyle stood there motionless, his expression completely unreadable. Stan looked at him over his shoulder, then turned around to face him. "Kyle? What's wrong?"

Kyle looked up to Stan's face and opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself. He didn't even know what to say. First his brother and that human... Now him and _this_ human. That was- he didn't even know what to think, what to do, how to feel. All he knew was that he really needed to talk to Kenny. He would surely give him some advice. But just as he took a step forward, Stan stopped him and gripped his hands. He looked genuinely worried. And how could he not? Kyle was spacing out, looking like he would faint any minute now. Though instead of fainting and despite his want to go to the nymph, Kyle took another small step forward to lean his forehead on Stan's shoulder, his hands releasing Stan's in favor of moving them to his back and gripping his shirt.

Stan froze, unsure of what to say. It didn't seem like Kyle wanted to talk about whatever was troubling him, so Stan just wrapped him in an embrace and stood silent. He felt Kyle's hand moving up after a while to rest on the back of his neck and then it all clicked. Well, at least Stan thought so, but he was confused about this. The marks that Kyle and Kenny talked about, that... soulmate thing? Stan couldn't make a connection between this and the sudden change of Kyle's mood.

Unless...

"Wait." Stan moved back a bit, raising his hands to Kyle's shoulders, then under his jaw to lift his head and look at him. "There's a mark on me too, right...?" Kyle pressed his lips in a tight line and nodded reluctantly. Now it was Stan's turn to be shocked, but he cracked a small smile after a while. "And I wondered why I fell for you so easily... -Um. I mean, uh-"

But much to his surprise, Kyle frowned at him.

"There is nothing to be so happy about! Do you even realize what that means?" Kyle's voice raised as he stepped back and away from Stan. Though as soon as he opened his mouth, the thoughts just started flowing out before he even had the chance to stop them. "We are about to go to war, not on a walk in the forest! And- and what we- what _I_ did is wrong, wrong, wrong! I never wanted to be bound to a human! I don't want this! I don't want- For Heaven's sake, you are going to die one day and then- what? I'll just lose another person that-"

Kyle shook his head as if that would help with making his worries go away. But instead it only made him more anxious, sad, angry, frustrated, horrified, all at the same time. He didn't even want to look at Stan now that he broke down like this.

Stan clenched his jaw when Kyle stopped talking in favor of taking a few shaky breaths as he backed up and slid down on the wall, sitting on the ground and curling in on himself.

Stan waited for a few seconds, then walked over to Kyle and sat down next to him. The latter muttered something barely audible along the lines of 'go away', but Stan moved only to wrap his arms around Kyle's shoulders and pull him closer.

"I don't know why that happened either, but..." Stan started quietly, but paused to move his hand to Kyle’s cheek. Kyle flinched, but still didn't move or look up. "If you're worried about me dying, I assure you that I won't. I plan on living for as long as I can. And now that I know that we're- what we are... I won't let you down."

Kyle seemed to calm down after a while, but he still didn't dare to move.

"I need some time alone. Please. And sorry for lashing out. I just- I need to think things over."

Stan sighed, but released Kyle. He leaned in to press a light kiss to his forehead, then stood up and went out of the basement.


	14. The importance of happiness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Then I'll make you smile as much as possible."**

_Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong-_

Kyle repeated that to himself like a mantra as he still sat there on the cold hard ground, his knees still tucked near his chest, hands grasping his head to prevent it from exploding.

He honestly didn't know how to feel about this, about finding his soulmate. Should he be happy, overflowing with joy, glad, blissful, safe, content, _loved_? Something in the back of his mind instisted that he should relax, but he couldn't. Stan was a human. Humans lie, betray, kill. Kyle knew very well that Stan wasn't like the other humans at all - he was kind, caring, patient, thoughtful, he went out of his way to help Kyle numerous times, he didn't even get angry when his life was about to be taken not just by anyone, but by Kyle, he just went and forgave him like it wasn't a big deal. Hell, he could be dumb sometimes, but he was everything Kyle wasn't.

Kyle cursed himself for everything. He was supposed to just put up a front of being friendly in order to get the much-needed help in rescuing his brother. He wasn't supposed to get attached to anyone, especially Stan. He wasn't even supposed to do the things he did last night, making it seem like he was only curious to see what would happen, how would it feel, how would Stan react, when in reality he felt like there were chains wrapped around him, pulling him closer to the person he found to be his soulmate.

This was all too foreign, too stressful, but after almost an hour of doing nothing, but sitting alone in the basement, he slowly accepted these new feelings. Now that that was out of the way, he thought of how that whole thing would affect Stan. After all, he remained mortal, he would die one day. And what would happen after their bond is cut off? Will he be reborn? If no, then what would happen with Kyle? If yes, should Kyle look for him again? Nobody has ever told him what to do when he finds his soulmate, if he has one. This was becoming far too complicated...

Kyle stopped in his tracks upon realizing the selfish turn that his thoughts derailed into. The egotistical side of him prevailed for a while, but the rational side navigated him to stand up, inhale and exhale deeply a few times, then fix the mess his hair became, and go to Kenny. He didn't really know why he needed that, but he could faintly remember the time he spent with the nymph decades ago. He just knew for sure that he could trust Kenny, and in return Kenny could help him arrange his thoughts, sort out his feelings, maybe even feel like he has control over his life despite the way Fate proved him otherwise so unceremoniously.

But he still couldn't understand how he found himself _crying_ in the nymph's embrace. What was he even crying about? About losing his parents and all other elves except his brother, yes. But he also couldn't help the dread that settled into him over a life that he hasn't lost yet, but will surely lose one day.

And he was supposed to regain his throne, take what was his birthright, he was expected to be a strong king with an iron fist, but instead he was bawling his eyes out. Pathetic. His brother could be better, stronger than that, even if he was still a kid.

Yet, here he was, releasing all of his feelings in one go, gasping for breath, his shoulders shaking violently, his head pounding while Kenny tried his best in comforting him. He didn't even know how much time has passed, he just didn't want to leave the nymph's soothing embrace. Not now, not yet.

Kenny assured that his friend was not so vulnerable when he finally released him. He hasn't said a single word after Kyle arrived in his room. Instead he listened to what his heart had to say, never judging, never scolding him or being angry at him for breaking down like that.

"Do you want me to tell you something?" Kenny finally spoke up, breaking the silence as he patted Kyle's face with a cold damp cloth. Kyle only nodded, took a deep shaky breath and let his hands fall in his lap. Kenny took a deep breath himself before proceeding. "As harsh as this sounds, things like this happen all the time. You are not the first immortal to have a mortal soulmate and you won't be the last too. I know it's hard, believe me, I really do. But you need to learn to live your life to the fullest, both of you should do that."

"But... then what?" Kyle asked, his voice quiet and sounding almost foreign because of the minutes or probably hours of... who knows what he was doing aside from crying. Screaming? Surely. The soreness of his throat proved that. He just hoped nobody else heard him. Especially Stan. He already saw and heard him break down not once, but twice, he didn't need a third chance to get to know this vulnerable, unstable, weak state Kyle was in now.

"Then... he's going to come back again someday. You may not recognize him at first because he'll be very different and in another body, but his soul will be the same." Kenny finished with a smile, but Kyle still didn't miss the sadness in his eyes as he spoke.

"You have experienced it too, haven't you?"

Now was Kyle's turn to comfort Kenny, and he grasped his hand. Kenny responded with yet another smile as he brought his free hand over Kyle's to pat it lightly.

"Her name was Marjorine. The sweetest, most cheerful and kind person you can imagine. The only problem was that she was a human." Kenny paused, his voice lowering as he continued. "That's why I was banished from my land. Because of being bonded to a human... But that doesn't really matter. Because in the end I could find Marjorine again. And I found her in Leo."

Kenny felt himself trembling from letting someone in to his life like that. He had already told that to Butters, but to tell another person... Honestly, he was grateful that that person was his childhood friend. And it made Kyle relax more, so it was a good choice indeed.

"I'm glad that it worked out for you. Thank you." Kyle muttered and leaned in for another hug. "And sorry that I'm using you as an outlet for emotions. Again."

"That's what friends are for. And I would be a terrible friend if I don't offer you help when you most need it." Kenny rubbed Kyle's back, then gave it a few light pats. "Do you want to stay here or you'll go back to Stan?"

"I'll go. I bothered you long enough."

Kenny nodded, and after another 'thank you' Kyle walked out of the room. He went in Stan's room and sure enough, Stan was there, laying on the bed and staring at the ceiling absentmindedly. He shot up immediately upon hearing the door open and close, his face lighting up with relief, but falling with worry at the same time. He hesitated for a moment, but when Kyle took a step forward, he also moved, approaching him swiftly and wrapping him in a tight embrace.

"Kyle," Stan breathed out, sounding so relieved like the weight of the whole world fell from his shoulders. "Are you- Are you okay? You were screaming like you were in pain, I thought you were dying... Thank God we have Kenny."

Kyle couldn't stop the sigh that escaped him, seeing that Stan was so worried about him yet again. But maybe... just maybe, it wasn't so bad to have someone care about him so much and _maybe_ he shouldn't be so hard on Stan, and on himself for that matter.

"Sorry that I worried you." Kyle mumbled as he returned the hug slowly, cautiously at first, then relaxing as Stan lifted his head to look at him, his eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "I mean it. I'm sorry, Stan."

Kyle looked at Stan who stared back with his beautiful blue eyes. Now that he thought about it, getting lost in those warm eyes seemed really appealing. That was, until they fluttered closed and Stan leaned in again to brush his lips on Kyle's cheek.

"You don't have to be sorry. Are you feeling better now?" Stan asked as he felt Kyle's fingers in his hair. Kyle nodded, actually smiled at him. Still, Stan leaned his forehead on Kyle's, exhaling a slow breath as he did so. He didn't know who comforted who right now. Was he comforting Kyle, assuring he's okay? Was Kyle comforting him so he wouldn't worry? Probably both. But it wasn't long before they detached from each other, not completely, still holding on to each other, but having a few inches left for air. "Why don't you smile more often?"

Kyle would have frozen at this question, if not for Stan's thumbs that caressed his cheeks. Instead he relaxed further, his hands flying up to place them on Stan's.

"Stan, we are going to war. There is no time to..." Kyle stopped in his tracks as he remembered, 'live your life to the fullest'. "I mean... Besides that I'm not really used to smiling."

Stan frowned and bit his lip as he fell in thought.

"Then I'll make you smile as much as possible." Stan assured with a big bright smile of his own. He retreated his hands in favor of grasping Kyle's hand and started making his way out of the room. "Come on!"

Kyle furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, but followed Stan out of the room and down the stairs. They passed swiftly through the main room, then into the kitchen, barely dodging Butters who was just putting the finishing touches on a sweet-smelling bread. Stan whipped around, took two pieces of the bread, shoving one in his mouth and giving the other to Kyle, then muttering a 'sorry' to Butters. It all happened so fast that poor Butters didn't realize what was happening until he took a quick glance at the tray and saw that two pieces were missing. Kyle managed to give him an apologetic look and a shrug before he was dragged out through the back door. They dodged around the training dummies too, and around Cartman who was just training, but stopped to yell something after Stan and Kyle. They didn't catch his words, but still apologized again and made their way in the forest. Stan finally slowed down, coming to a stop in the middle of a small field. When Kyle stopped too, he realized that they were running until now. He didn't know why, but he had to admit - it was fun, and he couldn't help, but laugh along with Stan despite the exhaustion. Stan even almost dropped his bread, but managed to catch it, then laughed some more at his own clumsiness.

After finally calming down and regaining their breaths, they sat down on the grass, still holding their hands, and the bread of course.

"There's the smile I wanted to see." Stan muttered and released Kyle's hand to poke a finger in his cheek.

Kyle blinked up at him, his smile wavering for a second, but then returning as he averted his gaze. Stan huffed in amusement. It was really nice to see the elf smile and laugh after hearing him cry his soul out for two straight hours.

They ate in silence, but it was a comfortable silence, being broken only by the birds chirping and singing. That was, until they heard a rustling and twigs cracking beside them. Stan shifted to stand up, his hand immediately moving to grip the handle of his sword, but Kyle stopped him.

"Stay down." Kyle whispered, patted his shoulder and looked towards the direction of the sounds. Sure enough, there wasn't a reason to be alert, and Stan realized that when he saw the pair of antlers that poked out and over a bush. The deer lifted its head to look at Kyle and Stan curiously while munching on some leaves. Kyle turned to look at Stan, a smile tugging on his lips again. "Watch this."

Kyle cleared his throat as he turned to the deer again, saying something in elven. The deer seemed to understand him, and it approached him, then lowered its body to lay down in front of Kyle, nudging his hand with its nose. Stan barely blinked as he stared with his mouth agape at the second majestic creature before him(the first being Kyle of course).

"He's- He's huge up close." Stan whispered, receiving a soft chuckle from Kyle who was petting the animal's head.

"But he's friendly." Kyle replied, equally quiet so as to not startle the deer. "Do you want to pet him too?"

"Uh- Can I?"

"Of course you can. Here."

Kyle took Stan's hand, navigating it to the deer's head between its antlers. The deer didn't seem to mind the touch, it even plopped its head in Kyle's lap while Stan found the courage to caress its back too, smiling as he felt the soft fur.

"Aw, who's a big forest puppy?" Stan exclaimed, giggling like a child as he proceeded to give tummy rubs to the deer. "You are! And you're a good boy!"

Kyle raised a brow at Stan, but couldn't not laugh at the way he treated the deer like a dog. Maybe it was because of their bond, maybe because of something else, but when Stan was happy, Kyle was happy too.


	15. What's hidden in the ruins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"That's enough! I understand how you feel, but this isn't the way to talk to _my soulmate_!"**

The rest of the day passed by like minutes for Stan and Kyle. They talked about whatever came to mind, shared moments of silence, laughed, walked around. Nevertheless, it was fun. They managed to unwind and forget even for a few hours where they were, who they were, what they were supposed to do.

Well, that was until someone had to remind them that it had already became dark outside, and that someone was Craig. He surprised even Kyle who had better hearing than Stan. But of course, that was Craig's specialty - surprise attacks. Plus, it was fun to startle his friends. That was why he followed them around the forest for nearly an hour, waiting for the perfect moment to strike- and there it was, just when Stan and Kyle stopped to examine some flowers. Craig jumped down from his hiding place on a nearby tree and had to try really hard to stifle his laugh when Stan stumbled back and yelled a 'dude, what the fuck?!' while Kyle also took a step back and instead of panicking snarled at Craig, but then gave Stan a puzzled look.

"What does 'fuck' mean?"

Craig raised a brow, awaiting for Stan's answer, but instead of giving one, Stan dismissed it by asking, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you mean what?" Craig huffed in amusement. "I went to inform the barbarians about the change in plans and I looked for you when I got back. But if you don't want to hear a report or what I found, it's okay. I see that you're... busy."

Craig eyed Kyle briefly as he finished, then turned to walk away. Sure enough, not a second later he heard Stan and Kyle walking behind him, so he slowed down.

"We're not- I mean, I'm not... For fuck's sake-" Stan groaned in frustration, shot a quick glance to Kyle to see if he was following, and caught up with Craig. "I'm listening."

"The barbarians are almost ready with the preparations and can't wait to take on that fu- _the Dark lord's_ army. You saw how Tweek was, imagine that thousandfold." Craig cleared his throat and proceeded, "Also, Tweek and I found something very interesting in the city."

"Wait, but- isn't it in ruins? What did you find in a bunch of burnt-down buildings?" Stan asked, receiving a sigh from Craig and another dumbfounded look from Kyle.

"The question isn't what, but who." Craig moved his gaze to Kyle before continuing, "It's more important to you actually."

"What? Do you mean Ike? Is he there? But Firkle said-" Kyle stopped when Craig shook his head. He sighed in disappointment, but that only sparked his curiosity more. "Then who did you find?"

"You'll see when we get there."

Kyle and Stan exchanged a confused look, but followed Craig. After a long walk through the forest, they reached the remains of, what Kyle guessed it was, a city. It was quiet there, dark, unwelcoming, unsettling. Kyle saw something moving in his peripheral vision - Craig patted Stan's back, nudged him to move forward, but Stan didn't budge.

"Come on, Marsh, it's getting late." Craig insisted. No answer again. Craig sighed and looked at Kyle. "I'll lead the way, you get him to move. _Please_."

Kyle flicked his gaze between Stan and Craig, then moved to stand in front of Stan.

"Stan? Are you okay? Hey... You're spacing out." Still no answer. Kyle bit his lip, looked over his shoulder to where Craig was already halfway through a small path, but stopped to wait for Stan and Kyle. Kyle looked back at Stan and slapped his cheek lightly. "We have to go."

"Wh- What?" Stan blinked rapidly as he snapped out of his daze. "Go there? Yeah... Of course. Right."

Stan huffed out a forced laugh and started making his way forward. Kyle followed him, but not before taking his hand to give it a comforting squeeze. Stan was just about to say something, but he was interrupted by a loud crash coming from somewhere, then a fireball flying towards Craig.

"Ugh, seriously, would you stop already?" Craig raised his voice as he stepped to the side to avoid the fire. Though whoever was attacking him, didn't want to stop, so Craig had to dodge another fireball as he shouted, "Your king is here! Or prince, or whatever his title is. I don't really care to know."

"Hey, that was rude!" Kyle protested, but he froze when he actually registered Craig's words. He exchanged a quick look with Stan and frowned when he saw him already clutching his sword. "Put that down."

"What? But- Kyle, you can't just-" Stan started, but both Kyle and Craig shushed him.

Kyle started making his way through the ruins, cautiously at first, but as he approached, he became more and more confident as he felt the familiar magic around. Soon enough, two figures emerged from behind what appeared to be a house. Much to Stan and Craig's surprise, Kyle took another few steps forward and embraced the two figures. They returned the gesture, but detached themselves from Kyle in favor of looking over to Craig and Stan.

"Who are they? Enemies?" One person asked, and along with their companion, they stepped forward. From this distance, it was obvious that they were elves.

"Who are _you_?" Stan retorted and also approached them, but the second elf hissed at the sight of his sword, even if he was barely holding it.

"Probably consorts?" Craig guessed.

Kyle cleared his throat, bringing everyone's attention to him.

"Stan, Craig. These are Wendy and Bebe." Kyle gestured to each of them at the mentioning of their names. "Also, no, Wendy, they are with me. And no, Craig, we don't have such disgusting traditions. They are my friends."

Craig flipped Kyle off, to which the latter responded with a glare.

"Wait, wait." Stan raised his hands, but after another hiss, he remembered to sheath his sword before proceeding, "So you two are... uh, _not_ consorts which means...?"

"Kyle's friends." Bebe replied, holding her chin raised to make sure that Stan and Craig understood the importance of this, but she was still nervous, judging by the way she was gripping Wendy's hand like her life depended on it. Which meant that Wendy was probably the one attacking Craig. She also looked more fierce than Bebe.

"Stupid humans." Wendy muttered grumpily. She looked at Kyle again and frowned. "Why are you with them? Have you lost your mind?"

"They saved me, Wendy. They are on our side. I trust them, so you can trust them too." Kyle explained calmly, contrasting to Wendy's irritation that was almost oozing out of her.

But Wendy still wasn't convinced and continued their conversation in elven. Bebe also joined in after a while, both of them gesturing to Craig and Stan from time to time while Kyle tried to reason with them, quietly at first, but he was quick to reciprocate the other elves' annoyance with groaning, face-palming and even shouting at the end.

Stan and Craig kept quiet through the whole exchange, only giving confused glances to each other every now and then. But Stan soon grew tired of this and approached Kyle and the girls.

"Uh, guys-"

"What?" The three elves snapped in unison and turned to look at Stan. Only Kyle apologized to him after this, his expression softening, but Wendy and Bebe kept glaring at him.

"I... I just wanted to say that we shouldn't be staying here because it's not really safe."

"Look, human." Wendy started, "I don't know who you think you are, but this place is the safest one, and you better stop telling me or her," She gestured to Bebe, then to Kyle. "-or him what to do! And keep your nose out of our business before I scorch it!"

Wendy's frown grew deeper as she leaned to Stan menacingly. Stan copied her and was just about to say something witty in response, but Kyle interrupted them both.

"That's enough! I understand how you feel, but this isn't the way to talk to _my soulmate_!" This took everyone by surprise, even Stan. Kyle huffed and lowered his voice. "I tried to tell you, but you don't listen. And honestly, I'm really tired, so can you at least try to be nice to him?"

Everyone fell silent. Wendy clenched her jaw, but nodded. Stan turned to look at Craig, but he was gone. How, why, when? Who knows? He had probably grown tired of listening to the others' arguing.

"Wendy." Bebe muttered after a while and turned to walk away, dragging Wendy along. "Follow us."

Kyle gave an apologetic look to Stan, then shook his head and started walking after the girls. Stan sighed, but followed them too. They soon came to a stop in front of a house that wasn't so ruined as the others, moved away some debris that were obstructing the entrance, and walked in. Stan and Kyle had to bend down in order to walk through the low doorway, but thankfully, the ceiling was high enough. Surprisingly, the inside of the house was clean, but the walls, ceiling and stairs were covered in ivy.

"Welcome home." Bebe announced with a small smile and gestured at a big table near one of the walls. "Have a seat."

Kyle muttered a 'thank you' and took a step forward, but Stan tugged on his sleeve with a nervous smile.

"It's too dark here." Stan whispered, leaning close to Kyle so as to not be heard by Wendy and Bebe.

But before Kyle could say or do anything, Wendy lighted up a few candles on the table before sitting down on a chair with her arms and legs crossed. Bebe and Kyle followed her example and finally, Stan joined them too, but took a seat next to Kyle and away from Wendy.

"Did you restore all of this?" Kyle asked. Wendy and Bebe nodded, Bebe beaming with pride as she did so. Kyle acknowledged that with a smile, looked around for a second, then turned his attention back to the girls. "But... I don't understand. How did you survive the attack?"

"We were in the forest at the time. As soon as we heard all those horses approaching, we ran and ended up here." Wendy explained. Her fingers fumbled with the sleeves of her dress, but her expression remained unreadable.

"I... we know what we did was wrong, but we couldn't take on so much warriors at once if we were to go back to the castle." Bebe added. "We went back to search for survivors, but there were none. Everyone was-" Bebe stopped herself and bit her lip. Wendy wrapped an arm around her shoulders and leaned closer to her so that their temples were pressing. Bebe let out a shaky breath and steeled herself to look at Kyle. "I'm really glad that you're alive. But where is Ike? Is he okay?"

"From what I know, he's held hostage by the Dark lord, but his soulmate, who turned out to be one of the Dark lord's soldiers, is taking care of him. Or at least I hope so." Kyle whispered the last part and leaned back in his chair. Stan shifted in his place too and caught his hand despite the glare that Wendy regarded him with. After a few moments of silence, Kyle cleared his throat. "We will be sure to take back what's ours. We are working on it."

Wendy and Bebe sighed in relief, but Wendy quickly became serious again.

"You're planning on fighting too, aren't you?"

"Of course I am." Kyle replied without skipping a beat. His grip on Stan's hand tightened. "There is way too much to avenge and it's my job to do it. I don't plan on letting the Dark lord continue with being this excuse of a king. I will take him down myself if I have to."

"I'm helping too." Stan joined in, "Along with my other four friends, Ike's soulmate and the barbarians. They're all going to assist us."

Bebe stared in amazement at Stan and Kyle. Wendy shook her head.

"If that's your wish." Wendy raised her hands in defeat. "But you still don't know anything about growth magic and I'm sure you'll need that in battle."

"I know, but-" Kyle furrowed his brows in confusion at Wendy's stern look. "Don't tell me you want to teach me now. It's late and it has been a long day-"

"Of course I'm not doing it now. We'll do it tomorrow." Wendy assured and stood up. "Until then, you'll need some sleep. You too,... what was your name again?" Wendy looked at Stan who blinked up at her and somehow managed to say his name without his voice cracking because of Wendy's menacing aura and sharp gaze. "Right. Stan. I'll try to remember, but I don't promise anything."

With that, Wendy turned and went to the second floor. Bebe watched her go, then turned to Stan with a smile.

"Don't worry, she'll warm up to you." Bebe leaned over the table, whispering her next words, "And she's really soft when you get to know her."

"What?" Kyle interrupted, "She was never soft to me. She's only soft to you!"

Bebe rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively, then stood up.

"Anyway, come with me."

Stan huffed in amusement at Kyle's half-hurt, half-surprised expression and got up, still not releasing his hand. Kyle followed suit and they trailed behind Bebe to the second floor and to a room that Wendy was just going out of. Though she stopped in her tracks, her gaze flicking between Kyle, Stan and their hands.

"You- You're going to sleep... together?" Kyle and Stan exchanged a confused glance, then looked back at Wendy and nodded. Wendy pressed her lips in a tight line, shook her head and walked away to another room with Bebe trailing behind her. "We'll talk about that tomorrow. Good night."

"What was _that_ about?" Stan asked as soon as he closed the door behind him.

Kyle shrugged and walked over to the bed, plopping down on it and only removing his crown to leave it on the nightstand. He barely stifled a yawn as he moved to one side of the bed and patted the other. Stan sighed, but followed his example in laying down. He covered themselves with the blanket and much like Kyle, closed his eyes immediately after his head hit the pillow. After all, it was a long day for the both of them, and they didn't even get to say 'good night' before dozing off.


	16. Sinners

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Oh _fuck._ "**
> 
> **"Stop saying that!"**

"Stan?

"...Stan."

"Stan."

"Hey, Stan!"

Stan snapped his eyes wide open. They felt damp for some reason, along with his cheeks. But aside from that, there was something else on his cheeks, something warm, soft, comforting. It took him a moment to register Kyle’s face that was looking down at him worriedly, and the thumbs that swiped under his eyes gently.

"What- What happened?" Stan asked quietly, his hands instinctively coming up to rest on top of Kyle's.

"You cried in your sleep and said something about fire." Kyle explained with a sigh. "Nightmare?"

"More like reality." Stan admitted and retreated his hands to sit up. He rubbed his face, then looked down at his hands. How long has it been since he cried the last time? Ten years? And these nightmares... Probably his returning to the city awakened them again. He sighed and shook it off, then looked up to Kyle with a smile. "It's okay. You don't have to worry."

Kyle still looked unconvinced. He stared into Stan's eyes, searching for something, much like he did on their first day together.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"There's nothing much to talk about. I just remembered what happened when the Dark lord started the first war." Stan's smile faded gradually the more he spoke. He bit his lip as he contemplated on the right words to say. "I lived in this city then."

Stan averted his gaze, but looked back at Kyle when the latter came closer to press a light kiss on his lips, then leaned his forehead on Stan's. Kyle felt him blocking his feelings again, but he still relaxed under the touch and closed his eyes. He wasn't about to let out those bad feelings yet. All of them were reserved for the Dark lord, not for Kyle.

"Thank you. I'm fine now." Stan muttered after a while. He moved back a little and returned the kiss, but on Kyle's forehead. He smiled again and stood up. "Are your friends up?"

Kyle nodded and also stood up. Stan led the way out of the room and down to the first floor, but he could still feel Kyle's eyes on his back. Thankfully, Bebe and Wendy were already at the table, so that distracted Kyle for now. Their breakfast passed surprisingly well. Wendy was on her best behavior, but she didn't really make an attempt to talk to Stan, so Bebe took on the task to talk to him by asking him everything about how he and Kyle met. At the end, Wendy started teaching Kyle the basics of growth magic, though Stan understood that from Bebe's translation because the other two were talking in elven again. Stan offered to help Bebe with the dishes, but while they were doing that, they could still hear Wendy -most probably- scolding Kyle, and Kyle's frustrated groans from the other room.

"Um... is it hard?" Stan asked after a while, taking a quick glance to the door. "Growth magic I mean. I've seen one of my friends do it numerous times and it didn't seem that hard for him."

"Oh-" Bebe stopped in her tracks and looked up at Stan. "Is your friend a wizard or a nymph? Or... another elf maybe?"

"A nymph." Stan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Why?"

"Well, nymphs are normally naturally-born talents. They don't need to learn about magic like we do, they just feel everything from inside." Bebe explained, but Stan looked even more confused now. She chuckled and shook her head. "What I mean is, they are self-taught and can easily control their magic. Then there are the elves who have magic, can use it, but have to learn how to control it. And finally we have wizards who need to study really hard to find the magic within them, but without spells they can't use it like we do. After all, wizards are humans. But everyone has magic in them. Even you do, but judging from your look and sword, you rely more on brute strength."

Stan froze in his place with raised eyebrows and gaping mouth until Bebe laughed and tapped under his jaw to close it.

"Yeah, but how- I... What? _What_? Even I have- Holy fu-" Stan stopped himself before finishing. He didn't need another elf to learn the f-word.

"Anyway, let's see how Kyle is doing."

Bebe led the way back to the main room where Kyle was trying to grow more ivy where there was an empty space on the wall, but whatever he did always ended up with the leaves surrounding that empty space wilting. Wendy restored them and Kyle tried and failed again. They repeated that process a few times, still nothing.

"If I talk to you in human language, will you understand me better?" Wendy almost shouted in her frustration, but managed to keep her composure. "Focus, breathe, relax. Think about good things!"

Kyle threw his head back to growl at the ceiling instead of at Wendy. He took a few deep breaths to calm down, then looked back at where Stan was standing next to the table. The latter gave him a thumbs-up and a bright smile, so Kyle turned back to the wall, muttering a mantra of 'think about good things'. He fell silent after a while and concentrated on his task. Several little sprouts grew on the wall, but they started shrinking again with every unpleasant thought or memory that found its way in Kyle's mind.

"Keep it up, don't give up yet." Wendy mumbled and made a few gestures to Stan.

Stan didn't understand her at first, but after Bebe whispered something to him, he moved forward, stopped beside Kyle and tapped his shoulder. Kyle turned his head with his hand still pressed to the wall, opened his mouth to say something, but Stan kissed him, so only a muffled noise came out.

"Hey, it worked!" Bebe exclaimed, causing both Stan and Kyle to look at the wall that was now filled not only with ivy, but with different kinds of flowers, some of them glowing and illuminating the room.

"You did it." Stan whispered as he pulled back, his lips stretching in a big smile.

"I did it?" Kyle repeated, his voice raising at the shock and flicked his gaze between Stan and the wall.

"You did it!" Wendy confirmed. Even she was grinning along with Bebe.

"I did it!" Kyle repeated again... and again, and again as he gave a tight hug to Wendy, then to Bebe and finally Stan. Though aside from the hug, Stan received another kiss which caused him to stumble back from the surprise, but he managed to keep his balance.

"You have to do it again, without the kiss this time." Wendy reminded.

Kyle rolled his eyes, but released Stan and followed Wendy's instructions again.

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be fine here on your own?" Kyle asked as he and Stan made their way out of the house. Wendy and Bebe saw them out, giving Stan and Kyle a hug for goodbye. Well, at least Bebe did. Wendy only hugged Kyle and waved to Stan.

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine. Bebe is strong enough to protect us both." Wendy assured. "But be sure to come back when you have the chance. You still have much to learn after all."

Kyle sighed, but nodded when he saw that he couldn't change Wendy's mind. After a few more 'bye's Kyle and Stan made their way through the ruins and in the forest.

"So..." Stan started when they reached the forest. It was almost dawn, but they still took their time to go home. "Bebe was the one who attacked Craig yesterday? I thought it was Wendy... Bebe doesn't struck me as the fighting type."

Kyle laughed and shook his head.

"The still waters run deeper than you think. Wendy is specialized in growth and healing magic. Bebe also specializes in growth magic, but she relies more on attack and defense magic."

"I see." Stan nodded and looked at Kyle. "Then what do you specialize in? Aside from attack and healing."

Kyle looked down at his hands and started counting on his fingers.

"Attack, healing, defense, I'm counting growth and archery because I'm learning them now. And um- should I include communication with animals and nature in general? I mean, every elf can do it, but still..."

"That's... wow. You're- damn, you're amazing! I mean, I already knew that you're exceptional, but... wait. So you can talk with animals? Like, you talk to them and they talk to you? What did the deer from yesterday say?"

Kyle huffed in amusement at Stan's awed expression.

"I don't talk _with_ them, I talk _to_ them. They don't talk, but feel. They understand emotions, gestures, intonation, not words. And I don't know why, but it seems to work better when I use elven, not human language."

"Oh." Stan hummed in thought, his face lighting up after a second. "And can you sing?"

"I... guess? I'm not entirely sure. Why?" Kyle gave a confused look to Stan, but he didn't answer, just smiled and proceeded to walk. Kyle rolled his eyes and focused his attention to falling in step with him. "By the way, you still haven't told me the meaning of fu-"

Stan hurried to clasp a hand over Kyle's mouth before he could finish.

"It's, uh, it's a bad word. So don't say it. It's not fitting for you especially."

Kyle raised a brow and pushed Stan's hand away, but as a second thought took it into his own.

"Then why do you, Craig and Cartman say it if it is so bad?"

"It's just a habit. We're used to talk like that. I mean- That doesn't mean that we can't be polite or anything! Well, except Cartman, I'm not sure if he even knows the meaning of 'polite'. What I want to say is-" Stan stopped when he heard Kyle trying to muffle his laugh with his hand, but failing miserably. "What's so funny?"

"You just- pff- Did you think that... I really don't know what it means?"

Stan froze in his place, his expression turning neutral all of a sudden as he realized the trap that Kyle set him.

"Bye. I'm leaving now."

With that, Stan turned to walk away, but despite his words he didn't release Kyle’s hand and couldn't stop his smile from showing.

They soon reached the house, but stopped in their tracks upon seeing that it was dark everywhere, indicating that the others have already fallen asleep or were at least trying to sleep.

"Oh _fuck_." Kyle whispered. "They are probably asleep."

"Stop saying that!" Stan whispered back, but couldn't hold back from letting out a chuckle. He cleared his throat after that and reached to grip the doorhandle with his free hand. "Quiet now."

Kyle nodded and waited for Stan to open the door as slow as possible. They stepped in quietly, closed the door and tip-toed their way to the second floor and to their room. Though as soon as Stan reached for the door, another door opened, and Craig stepped out halfway in the hall to greet them with a middle finger.

"What are you doing?" Craig hissed, "I thought someone's attacking us."

Stan and Kyle looked at him, both whispering a 'sorry' with sheepish smiles. Craig rolled his eyes and went back in his room. They waited for him, then finally entered their room, barely containing their giggles, even after they changed in sleeping clothes and laid down. They just calmed down after a while, and Kyle suddenly gasped.

"I think I know why Wendy asked us if we were going to sleep together and looked at us like that!" Kyle exclaimed and sat up. Stan looked up to him with raised eyebrows. Kyle's next words came out in a whisper. "Only married couples do that!"

Stan also gasped, covering his mouth with his hand dramatically.

"No way- So you're sinning now!"

"Me? You are sinning too!"

Stan clicked his tongue in disappointment and shook his head. He also sat up, grinned and wrapped his arms around Kyle, then thumped back down on the bed along with him.

"Then shall we proceed with the sinning? Now that we've already started, there's no reason to stop. Am I right?"

"You're ridiculous." Kyle muttered under his breath and turned his back to Stan. Of course, he was pretending to be frustrated, but that didn't stop Stan from pulling him closer and pressing a kiss on the back of his neck. Kyle rolled his eyes and caught Stan's hand to return the gesture to his knuckles. "Good night, Stan."

"Good night, Your sinning majesty." Stan replied, smiling as he heard Kyle chuckle again.


	17. According to plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Gee, who does he think he is?"**
> 
> **"Our future king, dumbass."**

"This is outrageous! It- It can't be happening! Token, do something! Burn the bodies!"

"My lord, most of them are still alive-"

"I don't care! I don't want that plague spreading even further, I'm sure you don't want it too!"

"But-"

"Go! _Now_!" The Dark lord growled. He started pacing around the throne room, groaning in frustration and grasping his head. He flicked his gaze to the double doors which Token was just closing hurriedly on his way out. Then he pointed to one of the guards near the doors and stopped in his tracks to yell at the guard too. "You! Mike, Mick- or whatever your name is. Call Henrietta here! Immediately!"

"It's Michael, yeah, thanks a lot for caring to remember my name." The guard muttered grumpily more to himself than to Clyde. He walked out of the throne room and huffed in amusement as he made his way through the main hall and various smaller halls. When he reached the kitchen, Henrietta and Firkle were already there, talking about something in barely audible whispers. The staff was nowhere to be seen, probably because they too have tasted the soldiers' poisoned food. Michael cleared his throat and waited for Henrietta to give a small piece of paper to Firkle. "His dark majesty wants you in the throne room as fast as possible. You know what to say to him, right?"

"Of course I know, I was the one who came up with this." Henrietta dismissed, still whispering so as to not be heard by eavesdroppers. She gave a slight nod to Firkle as a goodbye and followed Michael to the throne room.

Firkle tucked the paper under his sleeve and walked out of the kitchen too. He hurried down the small hallway, up the stairs and towards his room. He fumbled with his keys, nearly dropping them because of the excitement as he unlocked the five padlocks which the Dark lord insisted him to put on the door for extra protection.

"Everything's going according to plan, Your highness." Firkle announced before Ike could start interrogating him about the situation.

Ike sighed in relief and sat up from the bed to open the window. Firkle approached him and looked around to assure there weren't any guards or soldiers roaming near the castle walls under his room. He took a deep breath and whistled. After a few seconds, a hawk came flying to them and landed on the windowsill.

Firkle retrieved the paper Henrietta gave him, then turned to look at Ike.

"Where's the letter?"

"Oh, uh, wait." Ike bent down, lifted the carpet and pulled out a sheet of paper, folding it quickly and giving it to Firkle as he stood up again. Firkle tied the papers to the hawk's leg and after Ike said a few words in elven, the hawk flew away again. Ike watched it go and placed a hand over his heart. He looked back to Firkle who took his hand, giving it a comforting squeeze. "Do you think all of this will work out?"

"Of course. Everything's going to be fine." Firkle replied. "Just one more week to go."

* * *

Stan woke up with the sound of tapping coming from somewhere. At first he thought someone was knocking on the door, so he answered with an annoyed 'go away' and turned on his side, covering his head with the blanket. However the tapping never stopped. He groaned and finally decided to get up, but the arms that wrapped around his lower back didn't let him go any further than sitting up.

"What's going on?" Kyle muttered. He yawned and also sat up, but still kept his eyes closed and bumped his forehead on Stan's back.

"I don't-" Stan started, but stopped himself upon seeing the bird that was pecking insistently on the window. "Wait. Is that a hawk?"

"Hawk?" Kyle repeated and detached himself from Stan to stretch his arms. His eyes snapped open after a second and he hurried to jump out of the bed. " _The hawk_!"

"Oh- _This_ hawk."

Stan jumped up too and joined Kyle next to the window. Kyle opened it, mumbling a 'sorry' to the hawk who jumped up on his bare forearm. Stan was about to protest, seeing that Kyle's arm already started to bleed because of the sharp talons, but Kyle shushed him and took the papers. He sent off the hawk like his brother did, then walked away from the window to sit down on the bed while reading the bigger paper.

"Kyle, you're blee-"

"I know." Kyle sighed and looked up to Stan with a small smile. He lifted his arm to show the fading wounds. "Kenny taught me how to heal without using words."

Stan sighed in relief and sat down next to Kyle, leaning to the side to take a better look at the papers that Kyle unfolded. One of them was a letter from Ike to Kyle, but the smaller one was odd.

"Um... Why do we need a recipe?" Stan asked and took the smaller paper to examine it. "I don't understand. That's like a really brief list with the deadliest plants."

"Henrietta is giving you a list of ingredients to use for making a poison which can be used in battle. You just have to dip your blades and arrows in the poison and you get the same weapons, but twice as deadly." Kyle read, then raised a brow at Stan.

"Wh- Don't look at me like that!" Stan huffed and slumped a bit. "I would have understood what's written here if you taught me elven!"

Kyle chuckled and shook his head.

"I didn't say anything about that. Anyway." Kyle cleared his throat and looked back at the letter. "It seems that the poisoned soldiers are gone for good, the Dark lord is panicking for three days straight and thinks that there is a plague outbreak which means that he is postponing the preparations for another eight days. Do you know what that means?"

"When we attack, he'll be completely unprepared." Stan replied. He grinned and wrapped his arms around Kyle. "Everything's going perfect for now."

"Don't tempt Fate." Kyle warned and raised a hand to tap his fingers on Stan's lips in order to silence him. "You never know what could happen."

"I'm sorry." Stan muttered and caught Kyle's hand to leave a light kiss on his fingertips, then leaned to the side again to nuzzle Kyle's neck. "Let's go back to sleep now. It's too early."

"You still have traps left to set up with Butters and Cartman, remember? And I should go with Kenny to find these ingredients for the- Stan!" Kyle sighed exasperatedly and pushed Stan a good few inches away. He was just beginning to doze off, but snapped his eyes open again when Kyle called his name. "Here I thought I would go easy on you today... Go get the breakfast."

"But- Can I at least-"

Stan leaned in for a kiss, but Kyle turned his head to the side.

"Not until you wake up completely."

Stan sighed, but did as he was instructed.

After the breakfast, they split up and went about their day - Kyle and Kenny gathered the poisonous plants while Stan, Butters and Cartman proceeded to set up the last traps for the Dark lord's scouts and Craig went over the plan with the barbarians again.

It was almost dawn and Kyle and Kenny were just finishing up. They were just about to return to the house, but Cartman and Butters came running up to them.

"Princess-" Butters started, but Cartman cut him off.

"You guys! They- ugh, they caught him. They caught Stan!"

Kenny gasped while Kyle stopped in his tracks, his face freezing in shock.

"You... No. You are lying!" Kyle shouted all of a sudden, but stopped and gritted his teeth when Butters answered with a quiet 'no'. He looked and sounded genuinely worried which meant that Cartman was telling the truth.

Kyle shook his head, proceeding to deny everything, but the pain in the nape of his neck told him it was true. He clenched his fists, the nails digging in his palms so hard that he drew blood, but he didn't care. All he knew now was - save Stan and Ike, kill the Dark lord. Immediately.

"We... We tried, but-" Butters started and took a few breaths to calm down, but his voice still wavered from the shock and exhaustion. "They ambushed us, I-I don't know, they must have found the traps before falling into them and waited for us and-"

Kenny grasped Kyle's arm upon seeing that he was ready to go and fight the Dark lord by himself.

"Let me go!" Kyle shouted again at the top of his lungs, his voice transforming into a growl at the end. He tried to break free, but Kenny caught his other arm too, forcing him to turn around.

"Stop! Look at me!" Kenny shouted back. He frowned, barely matching Kyle's furious expression. "Think before you act or you're exposing us all to risk! Look, I know how you feel, but you must _absolutely not_ do something reckless."

"But Stan-"

"Just think about the consequences!"

Kyle huffed and looked at Butters and Cartman, then cast his gaze down to glare at the ground. When Kenny released him, he took a step back and looked up again.

"In that case, there is a change in plans. We attack tomorrow. Before dawn. Am I clear?" He raised his voice again at the last part. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Where is Craig?"

"U-um, he should be back already." Butters mumbled.

"Kenny, you deal with the poison, I'm going to look for Craig."

"Gee, who does he think he is?" Cartman asked as soon as Kyle started making his way back to the house.

"Our future king, dumbass." Kenny replied and shook his head. "Are you two hurt? Did you see where they took Stan?"

"No, not really. We were distracted by five warriors, so we didn't see where they took him." Cartman sighed and crossed his arms. "But we were pretty close to the exit that leads to the dungeons. I guess they led him there."

Butters bumped his fists together and started muttering 'sorry' over and over. Kenny tried to soothe him despite being worried himself, and Cartman just went back to the house without another word.

* * *

"Do you think he will listen to me?" Kyle asked.

"Of course! He knows who you are, he should listen to you." Tweek assured as he led Kyle and Craig to the tent of his father, the barbarian chief. He stopped upon reaching it and took a step to the side to let Kyle in.

Kyle nodded and muttered a 'thank you', then took a deep breath and walked in.

"Your highness-" The chief started, standing up from his seat to greet Kyle properly, but Kyle held up a hand.

"With all due respect, we don't need greetings. Our time is short." Kyle approached the chief, stopping in front of the table between them. "Are your warriors ready with the preparations?"

"Of course. We're more than ready. Why?"

"The Dark lord's warriors have caught one of our people, Stan. That is why I want us to attack tomorrow at dawn. Do you think it will be possible to do that?"

The chief fell silent for a few seconds and hummed in thought. Instead of answering, he called Tweek who walked in immediately.

"Son, tell everyone that we leave tomorrow before the sun rises."

Tweek yelled a 'yes!' and raised a fist in the air, then dashed out of the tent to tell the news to the others. Kyle sighed in relief and thanked the chief, then went out too.

He tried to endure the sharp stinging in the back of his neck where his mark should be as he and Craig made their way through the forest and back to the house.


	18. To battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"You really thought it would be that easy, didn't you?"**

When Stan woke up, the first thing he noticed was the missing warmth of Kyle beside him. In fact, everything was unusually cold and dark around him. He sat up slowly, groaning from the pain in his whole body, and looked around. His wrists were covered with handcuffs, connected to chains on the wall. His sword was nowhere in sight. He was in a cell in a dungeon, that was for sure. But the thing that startled him the most was the Dark lord himself who was sitting on a chair just outside the cell, grinning as he saw that Stan was awake.

"Well, you sure sleep a lot." The Dark lord remarked, "It's almost dawn already."

Stan frowned, but instead of giving an answer, he huffed and averted his gaze.

"I'm sure you're just dying to give me some answers." The Dark lord continued. "So, tell me, was it you and your friends who poisoned my soldiers' food?"

"Nice try." Stan finally spoke up. He looked back at the Dark lord. "What makes you think I'll say anything to you?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that your other two friends are here and I'll kill them if you don't do as I say."

Stan's eyes widened in surprise for a moment, but then narrowed again as he laughed.

"You're lying. Cartman would be yelling non-stop if he was here." Stan's grin only widened when he saw the Dark lord's eyebrows twitch. "Liar, liar, pants on fire-" Stan froze when a fire arrow flew towards him, but pinned down between his legs. "Jesus, what was that for?!"

"Shut up!" The Dark lord growled. Though he stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide. And without another word, he jumped from his seat and ran out of the dungeons.

Stan quirked a brow in confusion and stood up, cautiously going over to the bars to look around the dungeon. Then, a door to his right was kicked open and over ten barbarians barged in with Tweek and Craig leading. Craig only gave a thumbs-up to Stan, then continued on his way towards the other door which the Dark lord went out of. They were also followed by Kyle who stopped upon seeing Stan, lowered his bow and walked over to him, proceeding to look around for a key. Stan stood frozen in shock.

"Kyle...? Wh- What are you- We were supposed to-"

"Attack in one week, I know. I talked them into attacking today." Kyle replied. He clicked his tongue when he didn't find any keys and took a step back from the bars, instead raising his hand towards them. "Move back."

"Bu-"

"Move!"

Stan did as he was told, backing against the wall. Kyle shot a fireball to the bars which melted, making an opening big enough for a person to go through. He proceeded to direct another fireball at the chains that connected Stan's cuffs, then two more to the other chains. Stan walked out of the cell immediately and opened his mouth to say something else, but Kyle stopped him by kissing him.

"Are you okay?" Kyle asked after he pulled back, his free hand moving to rest on Stan's cheek.

Stan nodded with a small smile and looked around. His sword was left lying on a table next to the chair where the Dark lord was sitting, so he retrieved it quickly, but before he could put it back in its scabbard, Kyle stopped him again.

"Wait." Kyle pulled out a vial from a pouch on his belt and gave it to Stan. "The poison."

Stan nodded again and after emptying the vial's contents on the sword's blade, he followed Kyle to the open door leading out of the dungeons.

"Do I need to ask who's our target?"

"I think you already know."

As they made their way out in the hallway, they could hear grunting, metal clinking and explosions from practically everywhere, along with Tweek's distant shout of 'don't touch my Craig!'. But they concentrated on the task at hand and headed to the throne room, clearing their way there by defeating every warrior that was stupid enough to block their path. From then on, everything became hazy, as if they were moving on autopilot, until they finally reached the double doors to the throne room. It was weirdly quiet there, the only sounds coming from both sides of the hallway where barbarians proceeded to mercilessly kill the Dark lord's warriors. Stan and Kyle exchanged a quick look, nodded, and when Stan took a step back, Kyle shot yet another fireball to the doorknob. Both of the doors flew open from the impact, revealing the Dark lord who sat on his throne like there wasn't anything wrong happening. His right hand stood next to him, gripping his daggers and already getting ready to attack. But except him, there were also two guards, one of them holding Firkle by the arms, and the other one holding Ike the same way.

"Kyle, you're here-" Ike started, but the guard tightened his grip on him, so he shut his mouth and winced from the pain. Kyle furrowed his eyebrows worriedly, but looked back at the Dark lord to glare at him.

"Aw, these reunions are so touching." The Dark lord chuckled, then gestured to Stan and Kyle. "Token. Kill them."

Token nodded and ran forward to Stan, but instead of attacking him, he pushed him to the side and instead jumped to Kyle and pinned him to the ground. He raised a hand, pointing his dagger down at Kyle's throat, but he was stopped by thick ivy that wormed its way around his whole arm. He was caught off guard, but tried to cut through the ivy with his other dagger, completely forgetting about Stan until a sword cut through his back, the point coming out of his chest. Kyle raised a hand in front of his face to protect himself from the blood that fell down, and used the ivy to move Token's body off of him(Wendy was right about growth magic being useful in battle). Stan retrieved his sword and helped Kyle up.

As soon as they stepped into the throne room, the guard who was holding Firkle released him, and both of them took on the one who held Ike. The Dark lord looked extremely shocked, both from his right hand's quick death, and from the yet another traitor.

"Wh- Mick!" The Dark lord exclaimed, looking at the guard who let Firkle go.

"My name is Michael, you asshole!" The guard growled, stabbing the other already fallen guard with his sword as if to prove his point.

Meanwhile Kyle used the moment of distraction and concentrated fully on the Dark lord to wrap his whole body along with the throne with ivy. When he was finally bound there tightly, Stan approached him with slow steps, the tip of his sword dragging across the floor.

"Hey, hey, wait- You don't have to do this!" The Dark lord bargained while trying to free at least his arms, but the ivy only tightened around him, so much that it could be heard how some of his bones cracked.

"I don't have to do what?" Stan asked, now eerily calm. He stopped in front of the Dark lord, took a step to the side and swung his sword to pin it right in his thigh. "Do you mean this?" Stan muttered an 'oh' when the Dark lord yelled out in pain, and took his sword out. He walked away from the throne and looked at Kyle. "Actually I think it would be fitting for him to go down in flames as many innocent people did."

Ike turned to hide behind Firkle at that, muttering 'I don't want to look' while Kyle raised his hand again. But before he could summon his fire, black flames engulfed the Dark lord, burning the ivy, but leaving him unscathed. The wound on his thigh vanished when he stood up from his throne.

"You really thought it would be that easy, didn't you?"

After he said that, he mumbled something under his breath. The walls and the ground shook and rumbled. Countless spikes and black chains emerged from them and flew towards Stan, Kyle, Firkle, Ike and Michael. The last three dodged them, but Stan and Kyle weren't so lucky. The chains wrapped around their legs and torsos, tightened and slammed them to the ground. Next were the spikes that pinned through the chains and on the ground to hold them in place. Firkle, Ike and Michael tried to attack the Dark lord as he made his way towards Stan and Kyle, but more chains appeared from the ground to wrap around their bodies too.

"Now where were we?" The Dark lord mused as he came to a stop next to Stan. "Ohh, right!" He took the sword that was currently laying at his feet and examined it carefully. "So, poison, huh? Too bad for you, it doesn't work on me, but it would surely work on you."

Stan yelled and groaned when the Dark lord stabbed his leg with the sword, then twisted the blade. He struggled to move, to get away, but more and more chains wrapped around him. Kyle opened his mouth to say something, but found his voice caught in his throat. He tried to look away from Stan's agony-twisted face, but couldn't.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he swallowed the lump in his throat. Words spilled from his mouth before he could think what he was saying, what he was shouting to be exact. All he knew was that the Dark lord dropped to his knees, clutching his head and screaming from the pain. The chains and spikes crumbled and vanished, and Kyle stood up immediately after he was freed. His voice lowered to a growl as he lunged to the Dark lord, pinning him to the ground by using his body and ivy and thorns that tightened around him, cutting through his clothes. But Kyle didn't stop there - his hands found their way around the Dark lord's neck, squeezing and digging his nails in the skin there until the Dark lord fell limp on the ground. Kyle was still gripping him tightly even after that, panting and glaring at his lifeless eyes.

"Kyle!"

Ike called out from behind him, but didn't dare to approach his brother. The latter turned his head to him slowly, then looked down at Stan who was already barely breathing, gripping his leg with one hand with the little strength he had left. Kyle snapped out of his daze and shot up quickly, kneeled next to him and cradled his head with bloodied trembling hands. Stan whispered something and lifted his hand to Kyle's cheek. Kyle didn't hear him, more like he couldn't. He just shook his head and repeated 'you will be okay' over and over as he healed the wound on Stan's leg.

And still, Stan closed his eyes and stopped breathing despite Kyle's protests and tries to save him.

He was gone, just like that.


	19. Hail to the king(and his knight)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **"Old couples argue like that. _We_ fight like real men!"**

After what felt like hours of crying, yelling, attempting to heal Stan fully, Kyle finally gave up, but still held Stan's motionless body close. Their friends also joined them after a while. Ike and Kenny tried to talk Kyle into releasing Stan, but he refused and only tightened his grip, slumping forward over him protectively. All of the others - Butters, Craig, Cartman, Tweek, Firkle and Michael stood aside, still in shock. That was until Kenny ushered them all out to leave Kyle alone until he calms down.

Finally, Kyle decided to release Stan's body, letting him down to the ground slowly. He didn't know what more to do, just placed a hand on Stan's cheek and bent down for one last kiss.

"I'm sorry... I couldn't protect you." He whispered, as if Stan could hear him. He gritted his teeth, shook his head and shifted to sit up, but instead slumped down again with his head on Stan's chest. "You weren't supposed to die..."

Several minutes passed in silence. Kyle's fury was replaced with crushing guilt and grief. Hell, he felt like a part of him died along with Stan and all that was left now was a big void where his heart was supposed to be.

And then, he heard a hollow thump. Then another one. And another. He couldn't realize where the sounds were coming from, until a weight settled on his head, followed by a quiet murmur.

"Your crown needs adjusting, Your majesty."

Kyle shot up quickly, his eyes widening in surprise as he saw Stan looking up at him through half-lidded eyes. Stan tried to get up, but he was pinned down again by Kyle who embraced him, almost suffocating him and attacking him with kisses all over his face. Stan smiled and lifted his arms to wrap them around Kyle's back.

"I'm here now, don't worry. Sorry for leaving you like that." Stan whispered, but Kyle still didn't let him go.

Kyle breathed out a shaky sigh of relief and pulled back a bit, moving his hands to cup Stan's jaw, thumbs rubbing soothing circles on his cheeks. At this point, Stan was smeared with blood all over, but neither of them cared. Kyle stared into Stan's eyes as he searched for the right words to say.

"I love you." and "I'm so glad you are alive." After saying that, he didn't stop repeating the first words until his lungs started screaming for breath.

"I love you too." Stan replied after Kyle finally calmed down. By the way his lips were moving as he spoke, Kyle realized that was what Stan tried to tell him before falling unconscious. It only made Kyle choke down a sob, but he smiled and leaned down to press his forehead on Stan's. Stan did his best to hold him close despite the exhaustion.

Just then the others walked in to join them, all of them cheering, both because their friend was alive and because of the confessions.

* * *

"Well, how do I look?"

"Brilliant. Perfect even." Kenny replied with a grin. Wendy and Bebe nodded in agreement while Wendy adjusted Kyle's collar.

"Stan will surely fall in love again when he sees you." Bebe added.

Kyle huffed in amusement and checked himself in the mirror again. His shoulders slumped a bit, along with his back as he did so. Wendy scolded him, so he straightened his back again. This was meant to be the happiest day of Kyle's life, but there he was, biting his lip and rubbing his sweaty palms in his robe.

"Three months." He mumbled with a sigh.

For just three months they managed to take over the castle completely and make it their home. Three months of peace have passed, and today was the day of Kyle's coronation plus the day he and Stan were going to get married _and_ the day Stan was going to be proclaimed Kyle's knight. Of course, they could do these things in separate days, but they waited three months. They could as well get it over with at once. Kenny agreed to deal with his coronation while Wendy agreed to help with the wedding just because she couldn't stand the fact that Kyle and Stan proceeded to go against the traditions and sleep in one bed. At least she succeeded in talking Ike into not doing the same with Firkle.

"Kyle, the people are waiting." Wendy said, snapping Kyle out of his daze. "I mean... Your highness. Majesty to be."

Wendy offered a smile despite her stern voice. Kyle nodded and after a last check of his hair, he walked out of the room he and Stan shared. He made his way down the hall, admiring the ivy and flower-covered walls. The castle seemed to become lighter and cozier with his, Kenny's and Wendy's decorations, but what made it a place worth living in was the fact that the dark times have finished. The Dark lord was replaced with Kyle and his warriors were replaced with Stan, Craig, Butters, Cartman and the barbarians.

Kyle took a deep breath as he pushed the double doors to the throne room open. Everyone that was gathered there fell silent and moved to the sides to make way for their new king and Kenny, Wendy and Bebe who walked behind him, each of them wearing proud smiles.

Kyle and Kenny came to a stop in front of the throne while Wendy and Bebe moved to stand next to Stan, Ike and Firkle in the front row. In the meantime, Kenny waved a hand and Butters came to them quickly, carrying a crown. He gave the crown to Kenny who turned to Kyle when the latter kneeled down.

Kenny waited for Kyle to say the oath, then placed the crown on his head. He smiled and took a step to the side to let Kyle stand in front of the throne and turn around to face the crowd who errupted in cheers. The barbarians, of course, shouted the loudest, and they started chanting 'hail to the king!' with their fists raised. The rest followed their example until Wendy stepped forward and Kenny retreated to stand in the crowd. Kyle bit his lip again, took a deep breath and stood beside Wendy. Wendy gestured to Stan, but he didn't catch on. Much like Kyle’s first training with Wendy, Bebe had to explain to Stan what was asked of him. Then, finally, after exclaiming a quiet 'oh', Stan moved forward to stand on Wendy's other side. He looked nervous as well, but when Wendy caught his and Kyle's hands to place them on top of each other, both of them calmed down and grasped each other's hands.

The rest of the ceremonies passed in a blur and before they could realize it, Kyle was sitting on the throne with Stan next to him, their hands were still joined, but the only differences now were the rings on their fingers and the crown on Kyle's head. The other people have already moved on to the celebrations with drinking, singing or chattering. Well, all of them except Ike. He approached the throne and bowed to Kyle.

"Your majesty," Ike started, his lips stretching in a grin. "All of us are expecting you to start the dance. You and Stan, to be exact."

Kyle and Stan released their hands in favor of closing each other's gaping mouths.

"Uhhh... I, uh, I can't really da-" Stan started, but Ike cut him off.

"They're drunk enough to not care about this."

"Well, if that's the case..." Kyle trailed off. He stood up and turned to face Stan with a smile, taking his hand and kissing the back of it. "Would you be so kind to accompany me, my faithful knight?"

"Oh." Stan raised his eyebrows and placed his free hand on his chest. He averted his gaze in feigned shyness. "Me? But I'm just an ordinary human, my king."

"I know. But I still love you." Kyle replied, followed by Ike muttering 'okay, bye, I need to empty my stomach'.

"Then I guess there's no way I can turn down such an offer." Stan finished with a smile and took a step forward. "But you lead. As I said, I'm not that good at dancing."

Kyle nodded and led Stan in the middle of the room that the others cleared for them. Kyle looked over to Wendy and Bebe who were dealing with the music until now, and after giving them a nod, they started playing again. After a few minutes of dancing, the first ones to join Stan and Kyle were Kenny and Butters, then Craig and Tweek(after Tweek's initial protests of 'No, Craig, I can't dance!'), Ike and Firkle, Cartman and a barbarian girl... and everyone else.

Though it wasn't long before Stan felt his legs giving in, so he leaned in to Kyle.

"Would it be rude if we leave now?" He murmured next to Kyle’s ear. Despite the exhaustion, he couldn't help, but smile when Kyle nuzzled his neck.

"Why, do you have other plans?"

"You'll see for yourself if you come with me."

Kyle huffed out a chuckle and looked around. He detached himself from Stan, caught his hand and led him over to Ike and Firkle.

"Prince Ike, I need you to cover me. We are out." Kyle blurted out quickly, not even giving Ike time to think of an answer, and turned to walk away, his pace quickening as Ike shouted 'how am I supposed to do that?!'.

Stan and Kyle walked around the other people, swiftly exiting the throne room, then releasing each other and breaking into a run for their room. Kyle reached it first, and immediately upon touching the doorknob, he turned to point a finger at Stan.

"Ha! I won!"

"It wasn't fair!" Stan retorted, "I can't feel my legs!"

"It wasn't fair, I can't feel my legs." Kyle mimicked, complete an imitation of Stan's voice. Then he laughed and went in the room, hurrying to jump on the bed. He released a content sigh and hugged one of the pillows. "Now I don't feel so bad for breaking the rules again... Speaking of which- _You made me break the rules again_!"

Stan laughed too as he closed the door behind him and locked it. Just as he turned around, he was met by a pillow flying straight to his face. He blinked a few times, then caught the pillow before it fell to the ground and kicked his shoes off... then threw the pillow back to Kyle.

"So I'm guilty because you followed me? Don't lie, you also wanted to get out. I could see it in your eyes!"

"But you were the one who talked me into doing it!" Kyle retorted and sat up to take his shoes off too. He looked up to Stan, barely holding back a smile as he threw the poor pillow at him again. "You should take responsibility!"

This time Stan caught the pillow mid-air and stopped in front of Kyle. He huffed in amusement, but tried to keep his expression serious as he left the pillow back on its place.

"Look now. Old couples argue like that. _We_ fight like real men!"

"Is that so?" Kyle raised a brow and gripped Stan's collar, bringing him down to eye-level. "And what are you going to do?"

"I'll make you apologize for accusing me." Stan replied with a grin and started tickling Kyle's sides without a warning.

Kyle broke in a fit of giggles and tried to push Stan's hands away while attempting to escape by crawling back on the bed. Though Stan didn't leave him alone even there, so when he bent down over Kyle, the latter pushed him to the side and jumped up and over him. Stan took on the challenge and copied Kyle's movements. They rolled around in the bed for a while until they finally got tired of it and just laid down next to each other, trying to catch their breath, but still laughing every now and then.

"I'm sorry." Kyle finally muttered. "You know I didn't mean it."

"I know. I just wanted to mess with you." Stan grinned and tapped Kyle’s nose, then moved to trail his fingers on his cheek.

Kyle rolled his eyes, but smiled and raised a hand to place it over Stan's. Both of their gazes fell to their hands, more specifically to the rings on them.

"I still can't believe this." Kyle whispered after a few seconds.

"Me too." Stan replied, but his smile faded when he saw Kyle's face becoming serious. "What is it?"

"I just remembered that day when you almost... you know." Kyle sighed, then cleared his throat and looked up to meet Stan's eyes. "I know we promised that to each other already, but still... You are not allowed to die before I do. Understand? I won't handle losing you again."

Stan nodded and leaned in for a quick kiss, then answered with, "I won't let you down. But the same goes to you."

"Of course."

After sharing another kiss and whispers of 'I love you' Kyle stopped in his tracks, his eyes going wide. Stan opened his mouth, but Kyle clasped a hand over it.

"Oh fuck." Kyle whispered, followed by Wendy's distant shout of 'where are they?!', and Stan repeating Kyle's words quietly.


End file.
